The Swift Storm
by Mending the Sky
Summary: Dakota Swift. Your average show-offy 12-year-old boy who thinks he's all that. Follow him as he quests with his friends to unlock his true potential and recover a stolen . . . fruit?
1. I Sell Ice Cream to a Monster

**Hi! I've been wanting to write this for a while, so I figured, why not today while I've got nothing better to do? I'm new to the PJO fandom- I'm from Warriors! Heh, an outsider . . . =wide eyes= **

**Anyway, this the prequel to the story soon to be published on my joint account with my friends. So, um, I guess . . . enjoy! If it's messed up, tell me, because I'm not one of those people who thinks a tad bit of constructive criticism is an insult. : ) This takes place after Percy and friends are off at college, just so you know. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors. Oh, wait . . . wrong series . . . I don't own PJO. :)**

Chapter One: I Sell Ice Cream to a Monster

The sun beamed down on me as I shoved the obstruction through the gritty sand. My bare feet sunk slightly, making it harder to push on the handles wet with my own sweat. The gray rubber wheels rolled slowly. Beads of perspiration popped out on my forehead. I was using all of my energy, but I was barely making any progress. I stopped and raised my arm to wipe my brow, my sides heaving.

"Oh, shut up, drama queen. It's just an ice cream cart."

I turned around, right into a slug to my shoulder from my best friend, Alyssa. She leaned against the ice cream cart, into the small area of shade created by the flimsy umbrella and exhaled, closing her eyes.

"Why don't you take a turn pushing?" I said. "I've pushed all day!"

"I'm a girl," she replied smugly. "You're the man, right, Dakota? You're the one who's been going around saying how you're _sooooo_ strong."

"Y-yeah," I said quickly. "I'm the man!"

"Uh-huh." She rolled her eyes and adjusted the strap on her small tan backpack that she always carries around. She'll never let me look in it. Probably cause she has a diary in there or something.

We were your typical rising 7th-graders- stuck with a summer job selling ice cream instead of kicking back with a six-pack of mini-Cokes and Popsicles. I would've much rather worked at the surf shop, away from the beach (I hate the water.), but my mom signed me up to push an ice cream cart up and down the beach from 9 to 5. Alyssa had offered to tag along, for some reason- probably to make sure I don't eat all the ice cream for myself. It's very tempting to take a couple scoops, I must say.

If you want more info on me, don't ask Alyssa Zimmerman. She'll tell you I'm a stuck-up jerk, but if you ask me I'm just confident, good-looking, and witty. I'm Dakota Swift, 12-year-old awesomely-awesome dude. I can't say I'm the kid with straight A's in every class, but I'm not the idiot with the F average. I've gone to boarding schools all my life. The only time I come home to New York is during summer, when I usually skateboard and play video games. But unfortunately for me, I got stuck with a job this time.

"Hey, doofus." Alyssa punched me in the arm again.

"Ow!" I rubbed my shoulder. "That hurt."

"Deal with it. Come on, push the cart."

With a drawn-out sigh, I started to trek back through the sand, shooting glances at the ominously-dark sky.

The reason I became friends with Alyssa is because she's just like me. She has the same problems I do- ADHD and dyslexia for as long as she can remember, a bad reputation for changing schools every year- we're just the same.

Oh, and we both think the Jonas Brothers suck.

"Hey, stop," Alyssa said. "We got a customer."

I stopped the cart, looking at the empty tip can. So far we'd only been paid five dollars for one large blueberry ice cream by some lady who shouldn't have been wearing a bikini. I'd asked if she was expecting. She'd said no.

As you might have guessed, no tip there.

Just then I caught a glimpse of our new customer.

It was an older girl, maybe 14 or 15. She was wearing an emerald-colored tankini that perfectly matched her eyes. Her golden hair tumbled down her shoulders like a lion's mane. A 5-dollar bill waved in the wind from her hand.

Usually I'm pretty smooth with the ladies, but I couldn't breathe for a second.

"Hey!" Alyssa socked me in my other arm. "Stop drooling!"

The ladies' man in me took over. "Hi," I said, leaning against the cart and giving our customer my best grin. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," she replied cooly, twiddling the 5-dollar bill. Her eyes gleamed at me.

"Which flavor would you like?" I asked, opening the cooler and pointing at each flavor. "We have blueberry, lemon, strawberry-"

"Strawberry, please. Large," she added when I motioned at the three sizes of cups.

From there I went into full show-off mode. I skillfully scooped up the ice cream into the styrofoam cup, never leaving my eyes from hers. She gave a little chuckle, like I was amusing her. After plucking a pink straw from their plastic bag and sticking it into the ice cream, I passed it to the girl. Her touch startled me- it was cold, captivating. "Here you are, . . .?" I faltered, realizing I didn't know her name.

"Jessi, with an i," she said, taking the ice cream and slurping through the straw.

"Then there you are, Jessi with an i," I said, smiling and ignoring Alyssa's snort. "Thank you."

"No, thank _you_, Dakota," she said. Her eyes glinted unnaturally as she took another long slurp. Dang, she was pretty.

Next to me, I felt Alyssa tense. But I didn't really care . . . I was lost in the green pools of Jessi's eyes . . . wait, she was leaving. And she was still holding the five dollars.

Wait. She wasn't paying? Even hot girls had to pay for stuff.

Impulse sent me running through the sand after her. "Dakota, no!" I heard Alyssa cry, but her voice was lost in the gust of wind that blew against me as I ran.

"Jessi!" I panted, catching up with her. She turned, and her green gaze made me freeze in my tracks. I heard myself stutter, "Um . . . you-you have to pay."

"I have to pay?" Her voice was steely, her cold eyes narrowed down at me. "How about this, little boy- you pay for what your father did!"

Father? I only had a mother. I'd lived with her for all 12 years of my life. And it wasn't that bad, either. "I don't have a dad," I said truthfully, getting thoroughly confused. How did she know who I was, if I had a father?

"Oh, you have a father all right," she hissed, baring her teeth. Now I'm still a bit unsure about what I saw that day, but I think she had vampire fangs. Her skin was chalky white. Didn't she have a brown tan a minute ago?

My heart started to pound as Jessi advanced towards me on mismatched steps. I looked down at her legs- one was a shaggy donkey leg, the other was bronze like an automaton. What was going on?

I felt my back hit the ice cream cart. Dimly I heard Alyssa cry, "Dakota!" as Jessi leaned in close to my face. She smelled like livestock and sunscreen. Her hair tickled my face as she whispered in my ear, "Sweet dreams, child."

"No!"

As Jessi's lips brushed my throat, she was knocked away from me. My knees buckled and I crumpled to the ground in a daze. I saw the red ice cream splatter onto the sand like blood.

I saw Alyssa and Jessi. Fighting. Normally I would've thought, Sweet! Catfight! But now my mind was reeling as I stood unsteadily. My head buzzed. My heart pounded like a double bass drum.

I must be going crazy, my brain slurred. Jessi and Alyssa, they were shifting . . . from 2 girls heaving handfuls of ice cream at each other to a psycho vampire thing trying to claw my best friend's head off. And Alyssa's backpack was changing, too- from a backpack to . . . a quiver.

A quiver, as in what archers carry. Alyssa snatched an arrow out of it. As I watched, frozen, Alyssa notched her arrow in the silver bow and fired. An arrow sprouted in Jessi's left shoulder. She snarled in pain, but just yanked it out and threw it into the sand. She lunged at my friend, and I knew Alyssa had no chance to leap out of the way in time.

Everything around me seemed to slow down. Suddenly I wasn't dazed, wasn't scared out of my mind. My muscles tensed as adrenaline rushed through my veins. Liquid electricity burst from my chest, zipped through my arm to my hand, and left my body . . .

"No!" I stepped forward, thrusting my hand out as the monster opened her jaws.

Lightning zapped right next to Jessi (yeah, lightning.), so close some of the hair on the right side of her face was singed. She whirled away from Alyssa, her white face a mask of fury and shock.

"It's true!" she hissed. "You are!" She let out a fierce battle cry and leaped right at me. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for my last sensation.

It never came. When I opened my eyes, I saw Jessi, an arrow in her back, crumbling into dust that the stormy breeze blew away. Thunder crackled triumphantly, and a bolt of white-hot energy flashed through me.

"Dakota!"

Alyssa rushed up to me, her brown eyes ide with worry. Her white tank top was now stained beyond repair, and her face was red. "Oh, gods," she muttered. "I should've known . . ."

She was still shifting. One second she was dripping multicolored ice cream, the next fiddling with the strap on her quiver. What was going on? What was happening to me?

"I've got to get you to camp," she said, grabbing my hand. At her touch, the energy shriveled up and vanished, leaving me lightheaded and dizzy.

"Alyssa, what-" I slurred.

"Stay quiet," she interrupted. "Come on."

And she led me off the beach, leaving the black clouds swirling up in the sky behind us.

**Tada! What'd you think? Sorry if it's a bit cliche'.I do appreciate constructive criticism! Please review- I want to know if it was OK! I don't know exactly when I'll update again, but hopefully it'll be soon! Later people! Swiftpaw**


	2. I Go to Camp

**Heeeeeeeeeey I'm back! I apologize for the long wait; I was lazy on typing this up. :P**

**Disclaimer: La-dee-do, da-la-di-dee! I don't own anything! Well, except for the storyline and Dakota and Jessi and Alyssa and some of my other OCs . . .**

Chapter Two: I Go to Camp

My mom is awesome.

Just thought I'd let you know. I mean, shouldn't I tell you a little bit about her before you meet her?

Anyways, her name is Kestrel Swift. She has wavy blonde hair like me, but instead of startlingly blue eyes, she has hazel eyes. She skateboards with me sometimes. I know it's an excuse to watch me and make sure I don't, like, cause a fire or something, but it's OK.

She's really nice when I get kicked out of those numerous expensive boarding schools within the first couple months. She doesn't scream at me, doesn't call me stupid or get frustrated. Just sits down beside me, puts her arm around my shoulders and tells me it'll be better next year, even though it won't.

She's the best mother a guy could have.

There's only one thing bad about her, and that is that she tends worry easily.

So after Alyssa and I managed to finally catch a bus that would take two kids covered in a mix of sand and ice cream for 10 dollars and get to my apartment around 6, my mom tackled me with a bear hug as soon as I opened the door.

"Mom!" I protested.

She released me after what seemed like ages and then gave me a searching look. She pressed me wordlessly for answers. Her eyes looked over my face.

"Um, Ms. Swift?" Alyssa said quietly.

My mom turned her gaze to her. She took in everything- the quiver over her shoulder, the ice-cream stained tank top, and the claw marks where Jessi's claws had shredded one side of her board shorts. She spoke in a cracked voice. "Yes?"

"It's time." Alyssa swallowed and fiddled with the quiver strap again. "We have to go. Now."

Go? Time? My mind began to race again. Where were we going? When? It was time for what? Why was everything so confusing all of a sudden?

It shook me up even more when my mom briefly closed her eyes for a moment and sighed quietly. Then, her eyes still shut as if she were trying to prevent something, she said, "Dakota, go pack some clothes, underwear, and a toothbrush in that old blue suitcase Grandma bought you last year. You . . . you're going to a summer camp."

"Mom?" I started to ask her the same thing I'd tried to ask Alyssa- _What's going on? _

"Dakota." She turned to look at me, and I was shocked to see her eyes were brimming with tears. "Go."

I ran upstairs.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Ha!" I scoffed. "That story has the same chance of happening as a unicorn turning emo!"

"What?" Alyssa narrowed her eyes at me. "That makes no sense!"

"Precisely," I said.

"Whatever. Either way it's true!" Alyssa shot back at me.

"Yeah, uh-huh," I replied. "Sure. I'll believe it the day Disney stars stop trying to sing. Oh, wait- never!"

We had gotten in the car after I'd packed, and now we were driving heck knows where to some camp. On the way, Alyssa had fed me the most bizarre story- all the Greek gods and stuff were alive and real. The gods and goddesses had kids with mortals (non-gods) and voila! Kids like me and her- she called them half-bloods- came into existence.

And that's not all. There was a special camp for us- Camp Half-Blood, where we were headed. There we'd train, learn to survive, discover more about ourselves and hopefully be "claimed" by our Olympian parent. Alyssa was a daughter of Apollo, which explained the whole arrow/quiver thing.

I didn't believe a word of it.

"It's true," Alyssa said, widening her eyes at me as she read the look on my face.

"OK, let's say I believe you for a second," I said. "These empousai, or whatever you said Jessi was- they only come after the hot ones, right?"

Alyssa's eyes widened in anger and she snapped. "No, they only come after the self-centered, overconfident, egotistical idiots!"

I was sting by her words. "It was just a joke," I mumbled.

"Guys?" my mom said from up front. "Please . . . quiet?"

At the weariness in her voice, we shut up. She sounded . . . sad. I got the feeling she hadn't heard a word Alyssa and I had said, that she had been lost in her own thoughts.

We tried to enjoy the rest of the ride down. I focused on the darkening sky out the window. I tried to nap, so when I'd wake up we'd be there, wherever there was, but something kept me awake.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

We got there around 9. But I didn't know we were there, because there was a strawberry field.

"This is it?" I said loudly, slamming the door to my mom's Camry. "This is Camp Half-Blood?"

"Shut up," Alyssa grumbled, socking my arm as she came up beside me. "Listen. Hear that?"

I quieted. Sure enough, when I listened hard enough I could hear distant singing. But looking around the strawberry field, all I could see were, well, strawberries.

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"Right there," Alyssa said, pointing down into the valley of strawberries.

"Where?" I repeated. "That's not funny, Alyssa."

"Oh." She got the look of remembering something important. "Blink a couple times. The Mist is strong here."

Oh, right. The magical fog that covered mortals' eyes from seeing things they shouldn't. I blinked rapidly, and the scene seemed to melt away until it was blurry like smeared paint. When the rainbow of colors reformed, I wasn't looking at a strawberry field anymore.

There were cabins- 13 big ones, to be exact, lined up in a semi- circle. From where me, Alyssa, and my mom were standing on the hill, it looked like a horseshoe. In the clearing, a fire shot high into the air, the flames dancing like those belly-dancers you see in TV shows with bar parties in them. Around the fire, sitting on logs, there were about 50 kids ranging from about my age, give or take a little, to maybe 20 at the most. Around everything, I could see a lake, a climbing wall, a few volleyball courts- everything a normal camp would have.

That didn't explain why I hadn't seen it all before.

Alyssa gave me a look.

"That doesn't mean all you said was true," I said, crossing my arms. "I, uh . . . wasn't looking hard enough."

"Face it, Dakota," Alyssa said lightly. "You're wrong this time." She set off down the hill, sprinting towards the campfire. I glared at her retreating form, then started down after her.

"Wait! Dakota!"

I turned to see my mom jogging towards me, her keys jingling from her pocket. Her hair was messed up, her face was tearstained- when had she been crying?

"Dakota, I- we- I-" She sighed. She seemed to be trying not to burst into tears. Her voice was choked. Something was important.

I cast a glance over at the fire. Alyssa was staring back at me. _Come on, _she mouthed.

Ignoring her, I looked back at my mom. "Mom?" I prompted.

"This- this wasn't my idea, sweetheart," she said, brushing my bangs out of my eyes. "Your- your father- he told me it'd be hard for you after you turned 12. I- I hoped th-this day would never come, when I had to take you here."

I was bewildered, my heart pounding. My father? I opened my mouth to spout some questions about him, but my mom continued on, twiddling her thumbs like she always did when she was nervous.

"I- I'm so sorry. I should've told you you'd be coming here." She bit her lip, then put her hands on my shoulders. "Be careful, OK? Promise you won't hurt yourself."

"I promise, Mom," I said. As she gave me a huge hug, I felt tears spring to my eyes, too. But I wouldn't be gone too long, right? Only for a week, right? That's how long average summer camps were. But as I watched my mom get into her car, I felt that this wasn't an average summer camp.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I could smell the smoke from the fire as I approached Alyssa. I tried to ignore the pairs of eyes that watched me from the log benches. I tried to appear confident, like I usually am, but I was still shaken up about my mom's words. Nevertheless I flashed the crowd my best grin.

But I stopped grinning when someone-or something- approached Alyssa and I from the campfire.

At first I thought he was a man in an orange t-shirt, with dark eyes and hair and a wispy beard. Then I saw his bottom half- he was a stallion from the waist down. He had hooves and a tail- the whole shebang. He gave me a welcoming smile as he clip-clopped towards me. When he got close enough, he spoke. "Hello."

He sounded normal. I blinked a couple times. First a psycho demon girl, now a horse-man?

"You're a horse-dude," I said. It was all I could say, but I immediately felt stupid afterwards.

"Centaur," I corrected. "My name is Chiron, trainer of heroes." He smiled again. I didn't like his smile. It was as if he were hiding something from me. It was questioning, like, Is this him? Does he know?

"Do you believe me now?" Alyssa asked from beside me. I shot her a glance. Her arms were folded and she wore a smug expression.

"Uh, yeah," I said. "I think so."

**Sooooooooooooooo? What do you all think? Tell me! I MUST KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Heh, weird much? Now I have to finish writing chapter 3! See you next time, peeps! Well, I won;t actually see you, but you know what I mean. : ) Oh, and again, I apologize for any cliche'ness. **


	3. I Meet the God of Happy Juice

**HELLO. **

**I'm updating the Swift Storm! Yaaay! Oh, and I have a poll up on my profile- vote on it!**

**Disclaimer: I DON'T OW PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS. **

Pony-dude (or Chiron, whichever) started leading me into some giant place called the Big House. It was basically like a big sky blue inn. As we walked (or clip-clopped, if you're a centaur), Pony-dude-Chiron was talking about the camp and stuff, like Alyssa had in the car. I heard things like "Brain is hard-wired for ancient Greek . . . why dyslexia . . ." and "ADHD . . . natural battle reflexes." but I wasn't really paying attention. I let my mind and gaze wander.

The cabins were arranged in a semicircle, just like from the hill. I noted that there were 13 larger ones, and lacing off to either side of the end of the semicircle were smaller ones. They were arranged in the pattern of thrones on Olympus- I could tell by reading the Greek inscriptions. Yeah. Greek inscriptions. Thanks for clearing the dyslexia thing up, Chiron.

Looking at all the cabins made me think of gods, which made me think of who my Olympian dad might be, my eyes rakjed over each god's cabin, skipping over ones I could tell were goddess's (like the pink and purple cabin with a heart on the door. Gee, wonder who that could be.). But nothing really stood out to me.

".... Understand, Dakota?"

I jolted. Alyssa and Chiron-Pony-dude were staring at me intensely.

"Sorry . . . what?" I said.

"Don't irritate Mr. D, doofus," Alyssa muttered.

"He's being very . . . er . . ." Chiron-dude started.

"Annoying," Alyssa mumbled.

"Jittery," Chiron continued, shooting Alyssa a pointed look. "When he received news of . . . _it_ he got nervous."

"What's it?" I demanded. "And who's Mr. D?"

"_I _am Mr. D, child," announced a slurry, overdramatic voice. Like dogs hearing a whistle, Chiron, Alyssa, and mine's heads all whirled towards the Big House.

A pudgy little man was stomping down the steps. His face was flushed. His dark hair was thinning. He was wearing a tiger-print jacket and Bermuda shorts. He was holding a half-full bottle of Diet Coke. He shot me a look. "Is this the boy from the Third Pro-" he started before Chiron widened his eyes at him.

"Oh, dear me," the squat man said, feighning surprise as he came closer, looking me up and down. "He's a bit scrawny, isn't he?'

Thunder boomed in the distance. I jerked, but Alyssa and Chiron just stood there like a random thunderstorm was nothing.

Mr. D straightened. "I apologize," he yelled up at the sky. "No offense intended. Er . . ." He gave me an odd look, then said, "Come child, and I will explain things in a clearer light."

* * *

Inside the Big House was like an inn, like it was on the outside. There were a couple bedrooms and a kitchen, but Mr. D, Chiron, Alyssa and I crossed through the main room and headed out onto the porch.

Mr. D sat down at the single four-seated table and leaned back. He pulled something out of his jacket pocket- a Game Boy Advanced. He flicked the on switch, and for a moment I watched his fingers fly over the buttons faster than was natural- faster than even me, and I'm a pro.

After a joyful-sounding tune played, Mr. D closed the game and put it back into his pocket. "I always like to play Super Mario before I speak to a half-blood with a strange destiny," he said.

"Um, OK," I said.

"Come, sit." He motioned to the chair opposite him.

I cast a glance at Alyssa. She nodded, as did Chiron-dude. I looked back at the strange Mr. D. His weird purple eyes had an odd force flickering in them.

I sat down.

"So, you know the Greek gods and monsters are real," Mr. D said. I didn't know if it was a question or a statement; the way he said it it could have been either. He leaned back in his seat again. I got the feeling he was interrogating me.

"Uh . . . yeah, I guess," I replied.

"Do you know who your father is?" Mr. D sat forward in his chair.

"No," I said.

Thunder rumbled. I peered upwards over the railing to see the sky churning, the dark clouds piling up. I was sure it was about to pour down rain, but Mr. D paid no attention to the brewing storm.

"I heard you defeated an empousa," he said, eyes burning. "Struck it with lightning, to be precise. Have you ever heard of empousai?"

"Um . . ." This was by far the weirdest day of my life. I was speechless for once.

"I'll take that as a no." Again Mr. D leaned back. I watched as again he pulled out the Game Boy and began to play Super Mario. The purple eyes . . . the tiger-print jacket . . . I remembered a couple weeks back in early July, when Alyssa had brought me that Greek Mythology book for my 12th birthday. I'd asked why she'd brought me such a dumb gift, but she'd just stared at me and said, "You'll need it later."

I guess now I knew.

"You're Dionysus," I said, staring at the amazingly fast fingers fly over the buttons. "God of wine, right?"

"Careful with names, boy. But yes, I am Dionysus." He gave me an irritated glance over the top of the Game Boy. "Now, I have no time to deal with the likes of you at the moment. I am busy-"

"Playing Super Mario," Alyssa muttered. "Real busy."

Mr. D glared at her, then looked back at me with those burning violet eyes the exact color of wine. "You'll receive a tour in the morning," he said. "I'll have three campers show you around camp. But for now, Alyssa will take you to the Hermes cabin."

I opened my mouth to say, "What?" but Alyssa grabbed my arm as Mr. D's successful jingle sounded.

"Yeah. Come on, Dakota."

She pulled me out the door. As she dragged me outside, I couldn't help but notice how both Chiron and Mr. D seemed to be watching me leave.

**So. What do you think? Was Mr. D OOC? Sorry if he was, I had a bit of trouble capturing his character. :P Next update as soon as possible! Wish me luck at my basketball game tomorrow. :P Bye! :)**


	4. Life Gets Slightly Interesting

**Hey! Sup? Time for an update! **

**Dakota: Now you get to hear more about my awesomeness!**

**Me: Whoa . . . how'd you get here? **

**Dakota: I'm a character in your story! I'm always here. **

**Me: That thought frightens me . . . **

**Dakota: Why?**

**Alyssa: Because you're an idiot. **

**Me: Whoa! **

**Dakota: Who invited you here? **

**Alyssa: I invited myself. I'm a character too!**

**Dakota: Well, I'm the **_**main **_**character! Take that!**

**Alyssa: Shut your face!**

**Me: Oh my god. My characters are arguing with each other. **

**Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN PERCY JACKSON! GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD! **

After the talk with Mr. D, Alyssa led me to a large bronze cabin labeled "Hermes cabin" in English and Greek (Yeah, I said Greek.) above the entrance. She told me this was where I'd be staying until I was "claimed". I didn't get the chance to ask why I'd be here instead of one of the other empty cabins- some of the larger ones towards the center of the horsehoe had seemed vacant.

I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Thus began one of the worse nights of my life.

As soon as the door swung open, a bunch of kids swarmed me. "Holy-"

I felt a tug on my shoulders, and whirled around to see two boys about 10 holding remains of my birthday money. "Hey!" I said. "Give that back!"

I swiped my hand at them, and my money went flying. The boys scattered, giggling at my anger.

"Stop!"

All heads turned. An older boy, maybe 17, was pushing through the small crowd of kids. He appeared to have been roused by the commotion, judging by his tousled hair and the annoyed expression you get when you've been rudely awakened. He had elfish features and a lot of freckles. He yawned as he said, "We're supposed to welcome the new, unclaimed campers, not attack them." He held his hand out to me as the kids began to scatter. "Jason Alexander, senior counselor of the Hermes cabin." I could see now he had bright, playful green eyes- he reminded me of a jester.

I shook his hand briefly, irritated.

"You're Dakota, right?" he said as a trio of kids began to argue over beds.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Well, uh, welcome to Camp Half-Blood," Jason said, grinning. "Sorry about the cabin. It's been a while since we've had a new camper."

I found that hard to believe. Every single bunk bed was full, and a couple kids were sleeping on the floor. Every kid on the floor looked to be under 10.

"Where do I sleep?" I asked, hoping that since I was new, Jason would make some other kid trade their bed for the floor for me.

But he just looked around and pointed to a small empty space in a corner. "There, I guess. Since Hermes accepts all travelers, we get all the newbies too with the rightful children."

That made me feel good. Rightful children. Gee.

Following that wonderful conversation, I settled into me "bed". Using my bag as a pillow, I laid my head down and tried to sleep.

Even though the Hermes kids kept poking me and fiddling with the zippers on my bag, sleep came surprisingly easy.

* * *

Thus I take you to my first half-blood dream. They're really weird. Like, prophetic weird. Visions like a fortuneteller would "see". (Notice the quotes around "see". I put those there because of those fortunetellers are fake.)

Anyway! My dream.

I dreamed I was standing in a clearing, on a mountaintop. The air was chilly and I could see my breath, but I didn't really care. In front of me I could see a cabin made of log and thatch. It had a Greek inscription over the door- Sky. Out of that cabin came a woman, in jeans and a Giants sweatshirt. She was holding a blue bundle. Her long, wavy blonde hair was down to her mid-back. Her hazel eyes twinkled, and I got an air of happiness from her. Looking closer at her, I realized this was my mother. And the bundle was definitely a baby boy- none other than me, I guessed.

What was this? Some sort of sappy past vision? Why would I be dreaming this?

But what happened next changed that whole outlook.

My mom turned her head and called, "Honey?"

My breath caught in my throat. _Honey? _

A man exited the cabin.

He had dark hair, a shade of gray so dark it was more black, like storm clouds. He was well-built and lean, and wearing dark jeans and one of those black shirts like Simon Cowell wears. His eyes . . . they were like mine, the exact same shade of blue, like the clearest sky. As he approached my mom, the air seemed to crackle around him. He had a confident, powerful air about him, like a king. He came up beside my mom, eyes gleaming, and smiled down at me. He gave my mom a kiss on the cheek.

I knew. Right then and there.

This man was my father.

* * *

Being the new kid sucks. Also, being in the Hermes cabin sucks. No offense to Hermes himself, but his cabin is full of nasty pickpocketers who steal your stuff and throw it in the lake. And despite what Jason told the Hermes kids, my birthday money was gone anyway. Basically, what I'm saying is being a new kid in the Hermes cabin sucks.

Right after I woke up, I practically burst out the door- and into a girl.

"Whoa, hi," she said. "Dakota?"

"Looking at him," I said, taking a step back so I wasn't right in her face.

"I'm Annette," she said, "daughter of Demeter." She had overly-frizzy dandelion-colored hair and crazy blue eyes. Not sky blue like mine. Like, electric-sockets-are-fun-to-stick-your-hands-in blue. She was wearing gray sweatpants and an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt.

I nodded. "Hi." I guessed she was here to give me my tour, as Mr. D had mentioned.

"Hey!"

Annette turned; I looked over where she was staring. Two people- a boy about my age and a girl maybe a few years older- were sprinting towards us.

"We told you to wait," the girl said, scowling at Annette with a "you're an idiot" look.

Annette shrugged. "You were taking too long!" She cast a glance at me, as if to see my reaction, then looked back at the girl with a goofy grin.

The girl rolled her eyes, but Annette didn't seem to notice. The boy, who was tall with white-blonde hair and sparkling blue-green eyes, elbowed the girl, but she didn't do anything but shake her head and sigh. The boy shot her a look, then extended his hand to me.

"Caleb," he said, "son of Hecate, the goddess of magic." He pointed to a smaller cabin added to the end of the horseshoe, with swirling blue lights and animated little figurines dancing on the windowsill. "That's her cabin."

"Dakota," I introduced myself. "Son of . . . someone."

Caleb shot me a doubtful look, the same look Chiron had had the night before, like he knew something I didn't. He nudged the girl. "Charlotte?"

"Charlie," she corrected almost immediately. She shook back her long, bronze-ish hair and eyed me with violet eyes- the eyes of Mr. D. "Daughter of Dionysus," she added hastily.

I nodded. An awkward silence settled over the four of us. Annette licked her lips and kept shooting me glances that she knew I could see before shuffling her feet nervously. Charlie and Caleb were eyeing me oddly.

"So . . . um . . . tour?" I said, baffled.

"Oh! Yeah, come on," Charlie exclaimed in an overly-happy tone. She set off briskly down the row of cabins. Caleb and Annette followed, Annette grabbing my arm and pulling me along with them like she thought I wasn't going to follow.

"These are all the cabins," Charlie said, putting her hands in her pockets as she shook back her hair yet again.

"They're in order like they are on Olympus- Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and so on. Recently we've added the Hades cabin-" She nodded at the black marble cabin built at the end of the row. "and some of the minor gods and goddesses."

"Cool," I said absentmindedly. My gaze had been drawn to the simple white cabin in the center of the semicircle. It was just plain, but it radiated power. A tingling feeling buzzed through my head. Why was this cabin so . . . familiar?

"Dakota?" Annette tapped my shoulder. "Something wrong?"

"N-no," I said, shaking away my daze. "Tired."

"OK." She gave me a smile. "Come on, Charlie and Caleb are leaving us behind."

"Yeah."

She tried to grab my arm when I tripped over my feet stumbling after her in my still-dazed state, but I convinced her I was fine by running full speed after Charlie and Caleb.

As the big white cabin was put behind the four of us, I couldn't help but think of the guy in my dream- my supposed dad. The cabin and him seemed to go together somehow. Maybe . . .

My thoughts were quickly drawn away from the white cabin as a stream of hot girls left the pink cabin with the heart on the door. They eyed me as they walked, grinning at me with stunningly white teeth and red lips. All of them had to have been around my age, yet they were all wearing eye shadow. Their jeans and orange t-shirts were fitted.

"Aphrodite," Charlie muttered. "Prisses."

I'd been shooting my best grin at a girl with long black hair and a flirty smile, but from the tone of Charlie's voice I stopped. The girl winked at me as she and her friends vanished towards the lake. I still could hear them laughing as we continued the tour, the sound like tinkling bells.

The rest of the tour went by quickly. I caught random sights and sounds of an archery field- "Oh crap! Sorry Chiron! I did not mean to get that stuck in your tail! Oh my gods!"), the lake (where the hot Aphrodite girls were lounging) and the sword arena, where I saw a big tough-looking guy slice the head off a practice dummy with a wicked-looking black-and-red sword.

"Ares," Caleb advised in my ear. "Don't mess with them."

God of war. OK, sure. No problem.

The tour ended around lunchtime. On the way back to the overcrowded Hermes cabin, we passed the Big House, and I caught a glimpse of an attic I hadn't previously seen. I could feel something there, like an ancient presence had hovered there for quite some time.

I know Charlie saw me staring, but she didn't say anything.

* * *

For the next week or so, I adjusted to camp life. It was actually really fun, but nothing really abnormal.

I kept trying to figure out who my parent was. Not Apollo- my arrow-shooting sucked, and being Alyssa's brother? No. Just no. I wasn't a nasty bully like most of the Ares kids. Mr. D watched me closely like he was waiting for something, but it was pretty obvious I wasn't his son. Forget about Hades. Don't even think about Poseidon. The very thought of getting in a canoe sent shivers uo my spine. And any other gods? None of them really seemed right.

When I wasn't thinking about my parent or trying to score a date with one of the hot Aphrodite girls, I was enjoying camp life. At every meal we would burn offerings to the gods (they liked the smell, some kid told me. That was kind of amusing.). At night there were campfire sing-alongs led by a soulful girl named Sierra from the Apollo cabin, who would dance around the fire and sing loud and proud. Man, was it hilarious watching Alyssa sing.

But for some reason, no one would come near me except Alyssa and some of the Hermes kids, but they were just trying to pickpocket me. Sometimes I'd get short conversations with other kids, but most of them would just nod or smile when I said something, then veer away from me like I had some contagious disease.

I would soon find out why.

**Me: Yeah, more of a filler (I'm laughing because I almost typed thriller. lol)**

**Alyssa: That chapter was boring!**

**Dakota: You're just saying that cuz you didn't have a big part in it. **

**Alyssa: Am not!**

**Dakota: Pssh. Yeah, OK. **

**Alyssa: It's true!**

**Dakota: Remember, the Disney stars never stop singing!**

**Alyssa: Look what happened last time you said that! I was right! Ooh, pwned!**

**Dakota: Yeah, but I was right about the Disney stars! Hey, on another subject, I don't think any of the Aphrodite girls are single. Do you know?**

**Alyssa: Oh, gods . . .**

**Me: BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP! **

**Alyssa: Who says? **

**Dakota: Yeah!**

**Me: I do. HAHA! I'm the AUTHOR! PWNED! **

**Yeah, another update coming soon . . . and no more author notes like this . . .**


	5. We Play a Dangerous PE Game

**Hello, I'm back!**

**Dakota: BACK IN BLACK! **

**Alyssa: What?**

**Dakota: AC/DC.**

**Alyssa: Oh. **

**Me: Shut up. Both of you. We're not doing this again. Sorry it took so long, guys. I've been fed up with basketball, an impossibly long English essay, and first-trimester exams. Plus today my little brother turned 8 (Probie's growin up) so he had a big birthday party that all his 2nd-grade friends came to. I wish I was that popular in 2nd grade . . .**

**Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN PJO. GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD! **

Chapter 5: We Play a Dangerous PE Game

Friday at breakfast, Chiron announced we'd be playing Capture the Flag after lunch. Cheers erupted around the mess hall, and I got a feeling that whatever Capture the Flag was, it was fun.

"What's Capture the Flag?" I asked Alyssa as we left to go to our morning archery class.

"It's basically a war strategy game," Alyssa replied, her eyes alight. "You have to find the other team's flag and bring it back to your territory."

"Cool," I said, picking up my bow.

"It's more complicated than you think," Alyssa said, copying me and notching an arrow in her trademark silver bow.

"Whatever." I shrugged off her remark. "The team with _me _on it's gonna win!" To prove my point, I shot an arrow. It was way off; it zipped past the target completely and impaled itself in the ground inches away from the senior counselor of the Apollo cabin's foot. He frowned at me. In response, I grinned.

"Yeah, maybe your extra ego will actually come in handy," Alyssa mumbled.

I ignored the jab and snatched another arrow. I fitted it into my bow and was about to fire again when Alyssa said, "Oh, and Dakota?"

I turned to look at her.

"_This _is how you shoot." She fired the arrow, eyes focused. The arrow soared amazingly straight towards the target.

She got a bullseye- right in the center of the center.

Man, did I wish Alyssa got sorted onto my team.

* * *

Annette decided that she, instead of Caleb or Charlie or some other semi-friendly person was going to show me how to put on armor.

That was another bad experience, like the first night at the Hermes cabin.

"Uh . . . I don't think that's right. Um . . . no, not like that. This goes _here._ Yeah. No, wait! Oh. Yeah, that's fine. Ooh! Wait! Actually . . ."

This went on for about half an hour while she had me adjusting the heavy armor's straps and zippers and other random armor stuff I would never remember to adjust the next time I wore armor.

When I finally had all my armor on comfortably (or as comfotable as hot, weighty armor can get), she nodded, smiled, and left me to stumble after her onto the battlefield.

Luckily, Alyssa was on my team, wearing golden battle armor that looked pretty awesome- it was a color between bronze and gold. It looked pretty indestructible. She and some Athena girl I recognized as Sarah were sorting out battle plans, it seemed.

In an attempt to gain some social status, I walked right into the middle of my team, grinning, and said, "Hey, guys. Who's ready to win?"

A couple of kids rolled their eyes, but most just inched away like my imaginary disease would get to them if they stood too close.

"OK," Sarah said loudly, so the chatter of excited, anxious half-bloods wouldn't drown her out. "Here's the plan."

The talking ceased immediately- even the Ares kids had disciplined themselves to shut up and listen. Sarah nodded to Alyssa.

"We're going to fake coming in from the sides with the Ares and Hermes cabins," my friend said. "And then-"

"While they're busy with us!" an Ares guy put in boastfully.

"The Athena kids- Sarah, Matt, and Landon- will cut straight through the middle of the battlefield to their territory, nab the flag, and run back," Alyssa finished irritably.

"Hey, wait," I said. "They'll have some scouts and people guarding, right? Three guys . . . I don't think that's enough." I smiled to myself, satisfied I'd been paying attention well enough to spot that.

But Alyssa and Sarah grinned at each other. "Nice try, smartie," Alyssa said smugly.

"That's where the Apollo cabin comes in," Sarah explained. "They go ahead of Matt, Landon, and I and take out the scouts and guards so we have a clear path to the flag and back."

I felt my face flush under the helmet of my battle armor. I gave a slight nod and switched my overweight celestial bronze sword from my left hand to my right. It was so heavy and unbalanced, like all the other swords and weapons I'd used.

"We got that?" Sarah asked, crossing her arms. her gray eyes darted from face to face. She didn't wait for us to react before saying, "Then we're all set!"

* * *

After Chiron explained the rules (No maiming, no curses, etc.), he clip-clopped into the darkness of the woods. The game began at the sound of the conch shell.

Almost immediately after the call sounded, a chorus of battle cries rose from the other side. A huge jar soared up into the air, falling straight towards our side.

"Scatter!" Jason Alexander yelled. "Whatever's in there can't be good!"

The jar hit the ground and broke. I winced, remembering the time my mom's vase had been knocked off her table when I'd attempted to ride my skateboard on my stomach under it.

Fire began to rise from the point of impact. But it wasn't natural- it was an odd shade of green.

"Greek fire!" Landon shouted. "Don't bother trying to put it out!"

"Stupid Hephaestus cabin!" an Ares girl shouted.

"Get moving!"

Gods, this was chaotic.

I set off with one of the Ares/Hermes groups, yelling my own battle roar. It was kind of hard to keep up- my armor and sword weighed me down, and everyone else had done this before.

Jason Alexander saw me struggling behind the group. He hissed, "Dakota, why don't you stay back and guard." The tone of his voice didn't sound like a suggestion.

"No way!" I retorted, my breath coming in gasps. "I .. . wanna help!"

"Stay back!" Jason repeated. Before I could refuse, he vanished into the forest, dagger clenched.

I know then I thought some not-so-nice things about the senior counselor of the Hermes cabin.

I was stuck as a stupid guard when I could be helping my team win!

I wondered what Alyssa was doing.

Probably actually _doing _something.

I kicked a stone. I slashed my sword through the air. I did anything to stay busy. But still . . . I was so _bored. _Before, when I'd been panting running behind the group, at least I had something to do. I could even hear the exhilarating sounds of battle from ahead as we ran into some of the scouts. But now, I was completely isolated. I couldn't hear anything. Nothing was happening here!

I itched to just ignore Jason and go into battle. But that would ruin my rep even more, and I wasn't willing to become even more unpopular. I doubted that was even possible.

My ADHD was seriously acting up. When I sat down on a log, my leg bounced irritably. I tapped my fingers on my knees. I blew my bangs out of my eyes. I wondered if it was possible to die of boredom.

I don't know why it took me so long to realize this, but I figured out I'd been here before. Charlie, Caleb, and Annette had taken me here on the tour- I was right by Zeus's Fist. We'd only just passed by the place, but I hadn't been able to get a good view of the "majestic rock", as Charlie called it.

This was it- my opportunity to explore a bit! My chance to leave the boredom in the dust!

I jumped off the log, rejuvenated. I started off towards Zeus's Fist, but then I thought of the game. What if someone from the other team passed right through here, and I wasn't there to stop them.

I figured that was highly doubtful. But just in case, I picked up the heavy sword and set off towards Zeus's Fist.

**Yes, I know, that chapter wasn't very good, but I have a good one up next! I'll probably publish it tomorrow.**

**Dakota: Hurry up! I hate being bored!**

**Alyssa: ...**

**Dakota: Whoa, she's being quiet! A miracle! **

**Alyssa: ...**

**Dakota: Alyssa?**

**Alyssa:...**

**Dakota: Are you, like, sick or something?**

**Alyssa: . ..**

**Me: Um . . . bye! **


	6. A Goddess Tells Me a Story

**Hey, I'm back! I gotta make this quick . . I said I was working on my English essay but I'm not . . .**

**Dakota: Bad girl! =winks=**

**Me: Aw . . . you miserable flirt . . .**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. **

Chapter 6: A Goddess Tells Me a Story

Zeus's Fist wasn't very far away. Still, because my armor was so heavy, I could feel sweat running down my face under my helmet.

I set my sword down against the face of the rock and took off my helmet. After shaking back my sweaty hair, I put it down beside the sword and looked around.

Zeus's Fist was a giant rock. And I mean _giant. _It toweed over me and cast a long, dark shadow over the clearing, giving it an eerie, suspenseful air. It was sort of threatening for an inanimate object.

I walked over to the other major sight- as big pile of boulders. We'd passed here on the tour as well, but Charlie had neglected to tell me what this was too, no matter how much I pestered her. I got the feeling she didn't want to remember.

I ran my fingers over the cracks, feeling oddly detached. What had been here? These hundreds and hundreds of stones, burying something into the earth forever . . . I could feel a not-so-friendly presence lurking deep under the boulders. It was ancient, dangerous.

"Such chaos, that battle was."

The voice startled me so much that before I knew it, I was clenching the bronze sword with both hands. Suddenly it wasn't so heavy.

My eyes raked frantically over the clearing.

I was alone. No one else was here. I must be going crazy.

"Hello, young demigod."

That time I was sure I'd heard someone. I whirled back towards the pile of rocks, muscles tense. If something big, ugly, and monstrous was going to attack me, I was going down with a fight.

But it wasn't a monster I saw.

It was a woman. She was, as I had done maybe a minute before, running her hand over the racks in the pile of stones. Her long black hair fell over her pale white face. She was slim and barefoot, and wore a simple, tattered cloth dress. She looked to have emerged from, like, years of being interrogated in a dark, musty room, but she radiated power. Unearthly power.

Like godly power.

I said something that sounded really brave, like, "Who are you?" in a quivering voice that made me sound like I was eight instead of twelve.

She said nothing, just looked up and smiled at me. Her eyes were creepy- they were like pits of gray, like storm clouds. Like brewing chaos. I saw horrible things in her eyes- falling buildings, a terrible storm destroying houses, an earthquake splitting the ground in two . . .

"Don't look at destruction with wonder, child."

I blinked, and suddenly she wasn't at the rock pile anymore. "Hey!" I called. "Where'd you go?"

"Right here," a soft voice whispered in my ear.

I gave a shocked cry and whirled around instinctively, clumsily lashing out with the sword.

She was just standing there, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

"Who are you?" I asked again, clutching the heavy blade tightly. I tried to appear brave, but secretly I was totally freaked out. Who-what- was this woman? She had to be some sort of monster or a goddess or something . . .

"I'm a survivor," she replied, which really set my ADHD off into the 80s to that song, but I made myself listen as she continued.

"I am war, disaster, calamity." Pride radiated from her words as they rung out through the clearing. "I am discord, disorder, tragedy! I'm a catastrophe. I am chaos."

I felt like saying, "That's how my locker was last year!" but I figured that would ruin her oh-so-wonderful speech.

My mind began to race. I already knew she was some kind of goddess. She was practically bragging about her power. Again, I remembered Alyssa's book. The goddess who appeared with Ares in battle . . . the goddess of chaos and impending doom . . .

"You're Eris," I said, lowering my sword. "Goddess of chaos."

"Why lower your guard, half-blood?" she grunted. "You should fear disaster."

I didn't answer to that. Her presence evoked some deep fear within my chest- out of nowhere, something bad would happen. A fire would start or something.

"Why are you here?" I forced myself forward so I would look brave.

"I'm here to tell you something important." She vanished, then reappeared inches away from me. She had officially entered my personal space, but somehow my feet were rooted to the ground.

"Do you know the story of how my Apple of Discord started a war?" Eris asked, staring at me. I tried to avoid looking directly at her.

"Um . . . yeah." Something like she'd left the apple somewhere and everyone wanted it.

"Do you know how much chaos that caused?"

"Yeah."

She frowned at me. "We gods do not enjoy disrespect, child. I answer to 'yes, ma'am'."

"Yes," I stuttered. "Yes, ma'am."

A sastified smile crept over her face. "Very well. As you supposedly know, the Apple of Chaos caused great calamity between the three goddesses Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena, when I left the apple behind. They simply could not decide who it would go to . . ." She chuckled, as if the Trojan War was funny. "Another great war shook the earth."

She paused and glanced down at me, as if to see my reaction. In response, I again managed to avoid looking at her. She grinned, but it faded almost immediately.

"And now, I come to the bad part."

I looked up. "Bad part?"

"The Apple of Discord has been stolen."

"What?"

"And you are going to find it."

_"What?" _

Eris glared at me. "Your destiny was not set on this path, boy. They told me your true powers would only come when you matued more. But a powerful half-blood must find the Apple, not just some weakling. So I chose you."

My brain gave birth to thoughts that died as soon as I thought them. Me? Find a goddess's highly-dangerous fruit? Where would I look? Why was I supposed to find it?

"Why me?" I asked quietly.

"I just told you." She looked slightly unsettled, which proved my theory.

"The _real _reason," I snapped, forcing myself to look at her. As soon as I met her gaze, I saw a fire burning down a vast forest, the smoke piling like building blocks into the air . . . a volcano sending rivers of lava down its sides . . . a ship sinking at sea after a torpedo ruptured its hull . . .

"Go back to camp, Dakota," she snarled. "It would do you well."

I blinked, and she was glaring at me with the now-black eyes of destruction.

"Not until you tell me the truth," I retorted. I was trembling now- I could feel her fury radiating off her in powerful waves.

"Go back to camp," she said, and her body began to hum and glow. An almost blinding light formed around her. I squinted against it.

"I suggest you look away," she said. Her voice was echoing, like she was in a tunnel.

Unconsciously I turned away from her. For a moment I felt a scorching heat at my back before the light shut down.

Eris was gone. And I was alone, in the clearing.

All thoughts of Capture the Flag abandoned my brain. I knew what I had to do.

I picked up my sword and ran back towards camp.

**So? Whatdaya think? R&R please! Since I'm grounded from the computer except for schoolwork, I don't know when the next update will be. But hopefully soon! See ya!**

**Dakota: Eris scared me. But she was totally hot!**

**Me: ...**


	7. I Discover My Father

**Hey, I've FINALLY decided to update! Sorry, the Writer's Block snagged me. Sorry, but this will be really short and probably suckish. . . the next one will be longer, I promise! And I'll try to get it up today too! Writer's Block must die. **

**Dakota: That's no excuse! **

**Me: Shut up. **

**Alyssa: Leave him alone!**

**Me: Defensive much?**

**Dakota: I knew it!**

**Alyssa: What?**

**Dakota: You like me!**

**Alyssa: Do not!**

**Me: Your face is red. **

**Alyssa: =death glare= Shut up. **

**Me: Heh . . . on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: Man . . . I don't own PJO. Wow . . . that sucks . . .**

Chapter Seven- I Discover My Father

The forest was almost a complete blur around me. Adrenaline pumped through my legs, propelling my feet forward. My armor slightly weighed me down, but with all this energy rushing throughout my body I barely noticed.

I emerged from the forest and found myself back on the battlefield. I was on the left side of the river- officially, the other team's territory. For a moment I forgot about Eris and wondered if we were winning. Guilt settled softly in the pit of my stomach. I had abandoned my post . . .

Shaking those thoughts away, I stopped by the river to catch my breath and think about Eris's words.

She had purposely started the Trojan War by leaving the apple as a trap. And now, since it was stolen, who knew who would find it and start something? Or maybe . . . someone already had the apple . . . and they were planning to repeat Eris's actions and leave it somewhere where everything would go wrong . . .

And why did I have to find it?

Suddenly something barreled into me from behind.

"Whoa!"

"Hey!"

Our voices mingled as we both toppled into the river (Nice thought, Dakota. Waiting by the river was such a great idea . . . expect the worse.). I fell face-first, and the impact took my breath away, even though the river wasn't that deep. The icy water seeped into my armor. I scrambled madly, but I was still trapped under the other person.

"You idiot!"

Oh, gee. This was perfect.

It had to be Alyssa.

"Awkward," I said, my voice muffled as I strained to sit up. Either she was stuck too, or she was sitting on me just for fun.

I heard someone yell, "Get up, lovebirds. We need to celebrate!"

Matt, from the Athena cabin. He must have the flag! Exuberant cheers erupted from the other side of the river.

The warmth of victory flooded through my brain. I grinned in spite of my position.

Alyssa had not gotten up yet.

"Alyssa, do you mind?" I said.

"Oh! Sorry!"

Clumsily she climbed off me and began picking up her arrows and putting them back in her drenched quiver. Almost immediately I scrambled out of the water and began shaking myself dry like a dog. I _hated _water. My whole body was tingling, like after I'd zapped Jessi. My hands were flecked on the palms.

Trembling, I stood up. I cast a glance at Alyssa, who too had climbed soaking wet out of the river. She was staring at me. Her face was almost as red as her hair. I was sure my face was flaming too.

Avoiding her gaze, I looked over towards the rest of our team. Matt was proudly holding the flag, which had morphed into silver. Athena's owl had replaced Dionysus's grape cluster. I grinned and strode over to join them.

They all immediately shifted away from me, but I just ignored them. "That was a great game," I said.

"Where were you?" Annette asked, her usual happy-go-lucky grin fixed on her face as she stared at me. "I was on guard, too, patrolling, and I couldn't find you."

_Why were you looking for me in the first place? _I thought. But I replied, "Well, um, long story . . ." My teeth chattered. The cold water had managed to get inside my armor and soak my t-shirt. Great.

Fortunately, I didn't have to tell them about Eris, because Ben, a huge Ares guy, crowed, "He went looking for Alyssa!"

Everyone laughed. I frowned. "What?"

No one answered. Annette was shooting dagger eyes at my friend, who was wringing water from her hair.

"I said, you went looking for your Alyssa," Ben said, grinning.

"I did not!" I protested.

"Why are you all wet?" Annette put in, like she hadn't noticed already.

"I fell-" I started.

"Into the river with Alyssa!" Ben finished. Everyone laughed again.

"What's your problem?" This guy was really ticking me off.

"It's about time you guys realized your feelings for each other," he was saying, a cocky smirk on his mouth and his eyes dancing with tease. "Have you two kissed yet?" He made a kissy face at me. "Smooch, smooch."

My face was flaming again. Back at school, sometimes I'd teased the girls, but I'd never done this. I opened my mouth to spout some amazing comeback, but Ben interrupted me again.

"I mean, I bet she's really sad that you haven't kissed yet. I bet she writes about you in that diary of hers." He swooned dramatically and spoke in a falsetto, "Oh, Dakota is so cute! Today we made eye contact! It was just glorious! And then we- Agh!"

He broke off when I shoved him as hard as I could. He stumbled backwards, wincing. "Dude . . .what was that about . . ."

Looking back on it, it was really reckless and stupid. But then again, I was reckless and stupid sometimes.

Everyone was staring at me. That manic power had flooded my mind, and now it had depleted me again. With shifting vision, I took in the sight of Ben.

There were two holes in his armor with smoke curling off them. I could see red welts on his chest. Did . . . did I do that? I thought. The air crackled around me. I stepped back. "Whoa, I didn't-" I raised my hands in surrender, but that made everyone widen their eyes and scramble backward.

Threads of electricity danced around my hands. In awe, I stared at them. What . . .

"Look, I-"

Now they were all looking above my head. "What-" I started. Then I decided it would be best if I looked up myself. I looked skyward.

A swirling figure of a lightning bolt shone proudly above my head.

The cabin, the dream . . .

Frantic cries arose from the cluster of half-bloods.

"Someone get Chiron!"

"Dakota's been claimed!"

A lightning bolt. My mouth went dry.

I was a son of Zeus.

**Yup, it was a pretty dumb chapter, but whatever . . . I'll try and update again today and see if it's better. Promise!**

**Dakota: Why did you make me fall in the river with Alyssa? I would never do that!**

**Alyssa: ...**

**Me: Hey, it was an idea. An idea's an idea. **

**Dakota: A stupid idea . . .**

**Me: Shut up. **

**Next chapter, some things should be revealed. See you then!**


	8. Things are Explained, a Little

**Hey guys! Sorry this chapter wasn't posted earlier . . . I got sidetracked. My friend called me and asked me if I wanted to come over, so . . . yeah, I have a social life!**

**Dakota: Surprising. **

**Alyssa: =punches him in the arm= Dakota! That was cruel!**

**Dakota: Heh heh. It was just a joke. **

**Me: . . .**

**Disclaimer: I don't fricken own fricken P fricken J fricken O. Fricken got it in your fricken brain? (Wow, that fricken word is so fricken fun!) **

Chapter Eight: Things are Explained, a Little

OK, I know I shouldn't really care, but being claimed by Zeus didn't help my social status at all.

I got to move to the big white cabin that had seemed so familiar. It was simple on the inside as well- plain marble floor, brilliantly white wall, wooden bunks with pale sky blue blankets and matching sheets and pillows. Plain but powerful. Just like the white exterior.

I got to take up all the space I needed. The cabin was pretty spacious, seeing as there were only two bunks on either wall. I had lots of room to spread out my simple bag and stuff. No one could pickpocket me. No one could force me to sleep on the floor. I called my own shots.

But I always alone.

Kids avoided me all the time. But I could hear the whispers . . . see the stares they shot at me when they thought I wasn't looking . . .

"Zeus's kid . . . did you hear . . . prophecy . . ."

Even Alyssa wouldn't talk to me much anymore. I still had practically every class with her, so it made it hard to avoid me, but somehow she managed to wave me away as if I were an annoying fly. I would try to partner up with her in swordplay and canoes, but she would always pair up with someone else first, then say sorry in a non-apolegetic voice. She was definitely hiding something.

And as a result of Alyssa ignoring me, I usually got paired up with someone dumb. Like, say, Annette. She was just so absent-minded and odd. She would giggle every time our hands brushed or something. She was always extra goofy around me, making stupid jokes and such.

Despite the fact he still had the remains of the two welts I'd given him, Ben still managed to annoy me every time he passed. He would say things like, "Did you and Alyssa break up?" or "I heard you and Annette were a package now," and always manage to get to me no matter how strong my mental defenses were.

I kept trying to be normal, doing things like challenging some of the other boys to sword duels in free time, or flirting unsuccessfully with the Aphrodite girls, but none of it seemed to work. After seeing my electricity powers in action, people were afraid to come near me more than ever.

As I lay in my empty cabin at night, I couldn't help resenting my father a bit. Right after everyone had started to like me just a little bit, he'd claimed me and ruined it all. It was like telling someone about the surprise party you were planning for them.

I thought life at the Hermes cabin had been unenjoyable. Well, this proved me wrong.

I awoke to the sound of loud banging on my door. "Wake up, doofus!"

I shot up. Alyssa! Maybe she was finally willing to talk to me again!

I slid out of bed, shaking sleep out of my heavy limbs, and shuffled over to the door. I opened the door and kept my hand on it. "Yeah?"

"Chiron wants to talk to you," she said. Her fiery hair was in her face, and she was breathing hard, like she'd run here.

"Sure, whatever," I said. "I'll be ready in a couple minutes."

"Well, you better hurry up," she said impatiently. "He was kind of antsy."

I hid a smirk as I closed the door. Typical Alyssa.

After pulling on jeans and my orange camp t-shirt, I opened the door again to find not Alyssa, but Annette.

"Whoa, where'd Alyssa go?" I asked, looking around anxiously for my friend.

"Oh, she had archery class," Demeter's daughter said, blue eyes bright. "So she told me to take you to the Big House instead!"

"Oh, joy," I mumbled. Annette didn't seem to hear me.

"Come on," she chirped, strolling off in the direction of the Big House.

Sighing, I trudged after her, trying to ignore the taunting look Ben shot at me from the outside forging area.

"So, um,did Chiron say why he wants to see me?" I asked Annette.

"Nope," she chirped. "He just wants to see you in private. It's probably something important!"

What was wrong with this girl? She was like, crazy! I was on the edge of saying, "Naw, dip, sherlock."

Chiron didn't typically just call campers in to talk with them alone. This was probably a major thing. I found myself hoping he was going to congratulate me on my swordplay skills or something irrelevant to the child of Zeus thing.

"OK, we're here!" Annette said brightly.

Whoop-de-doo, I thought.

"Bye, Dakota!" she said, waving as I climbed the steps and into the main room.

Chiron was there, in wheelchair mode. He was drinking what looked like tea. "Hello, Dakota," he said when he noticed me. The look on his face was grim.

I just stood there, unsure of what to say.

"Do you want me to rant on about why I knew you were special from the start, or just cut to the chase?" he asked.

"Cut to the chase, I guess," I answered, taking a seat across from him at the kitchen table.

He shrugged. "OK, then." He paused, drawing in a deep breath, before saying something that shocked me more than being claimed by the Lord of the Sky.

"Dakota, I called you here to tell you about the Third Prophecy."

* * *

"What?" My voice was tiny and almost inaudible.

Chiron sighed heavily. Then he turned deep brown eyes at me and said, "Would you like to hear the backstory?"

"Yeah."

He sighed again and leaned forward, interlacing his fingers.

"After the second Great Prophecy was fulfilled, our Oracle, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, managed to spout yet another prophecy. This one involves three half-bloods, all children of the Big Three, who have supposedly inherited nearly unstoppable power. And I think you are the Third child, the last half-blood to arrive at camp."

My throat had been clogged by a large lump of something I couldn't identify. "Power?" I repeated, swallowing.

Chiron nodded gravely. "A great power. I wasn't certain until Zeus claimed you, but now I'm positive."

"What is it?"

"We won't know until you meet the other two."

"And where are they?"

"Away." Chiron's eyes got misty. "They were sent on a quest early June. haven't returned yet."

Ouch. Problem number one.

"Can you tell me the prophecy?" I asked quietly.

"No. Not until you're united."

Great. Problem number two.

"Would this be a bad time to tell you a goddess visited me?" I asked, wincing. I'd been meaning to tell the old centaur, but I hadn't been able to think for the past couple of days since adjusting to life in the Zeus cabin.

His eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. "What?"

I told him about the whole deal with Eris and the eerie things she had told me about my destiny.

Chiron looked taken aback. "This does not bode well . . ." He started mumbling to himself.

"Why? What's wrong?" I inquired.

Chiron shot me that same look, like _Does he know? _That same look everyone had been giving me since I arrived at camp.

I hated being in the dark about all this. "Tell me," I said.

Chiron locked eyes with me. Then, wordlessly, he rolled over around the corner of the kitchen table and out onto the porch. I heard a creaking noise, like pulling up old wood, and then Chiron rolled his wheelchair back into the kitchen and handed me a piece of parchment.

I took the delicate paper and unrolled it. It was written in loopy cursive- definitely female, and torture for my dyslexic brain. There was a note at the top- "For the Third Child- Think of this as your preparatory quest. The next will be much harder."

Great.

I squinted to read the writing below. Eventually I made out:

"_Three will journey, one replaced_

_and save the kingdom of light from a dark stage_

_the sacred fruit that all adore_

_sent back to the hands of its master once more_

_the plants shall grow, the archer shall rise_

_Be prepared to say three goodbyes." _

Speechless, I put the prophecy on the table and met Chiron's grim brown gaze. "Is that- the-" I started, my voice choked.

"No, it's not," the centaur interrupted. "Rachel said give this to you once you were ready. I guess this means . . ." He paused and an odd look passed over his face.

"Huh?" I prompted.

"Dakota . . . this prophecy is stating that you should pick two other campers and go quest to find Eris's apple, assuming that is the sacred fruit," Chiron said slowly. "So . . . will you accept this quest?"

My mind raced. I remembered Eris's words- "_Your destiny was not set on this path, boy. They told me your true powers would only come when you matured more." _That explained what Chiron had said about the prophecy . . .

I looked up into Chiron's dark eyes. A fierce determination had been lit in my chest. I was ready. I could take this quest on. I would find Eris's apple and return it to her. I could do this.

"I accept," I said.

**Tada! Was that better? Well, I guess it kind of sets up for the sequel. Speaking of the sequel, my friends and I have decided we'll publish our own versions, featuring all the same characters. Amberlight127 already has hers up, so I guess you could check it out if you wanted to. . . yay. Anyway, reviews are greatly appreciated. And just for fun, tell me who you think Dakota should pick to take with him! I mean, I've already decided, but still . . . it's fun! See you next chapter! I'm gonna try and post it on New Year's, as a sort of present, so . . . yeah. Dang . . . long author's note . . .**

**Dakota: Yeah, shut up already! **

**Alyssa: Whatever . . . **

**Me: OK . . . well, bye!**


	9. I Recruit Campers

**Hellos! I am back! Again! HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLES! I went to see Sherlock Holmes yesterday- great movie. Good mixture of action, London in the past, and humor. :D Anyways, I'm going to be publishing a new chapter on my fictionpress story, Shadow Rider, sometime soon, so be on the lookout if you like that story . . . and also! I may publish a one-shot sometime soon as well. Sorry this chapter isn't very long . . .I meant for it to be a filler while I sort out parts of the quest . . .**

**Disclaimer: PJO is not owned by me, but since I'm writing this fanfiction for PJO . . . and Dakota is a son of Zeus . . . that means he and Percy are what, cousins, right? So technically, they're related, so I may own a part of PJO . . . I'm trying to point out little tiny details like Sherlock. lol it's so funny to annoy people like that; give it a try! **

Chapter Nine: I Recruit Campers

"What?" Alyssa said.

"You heard me."

"Still . . . what?"

"Come on, Alyssa. You know what I mean."

Her brown eyes were immensely wide. "You're not serious."

"Yeah I am. Do you accept?"

Silence.

"Do you accept?" I widened my eyes at her.

Pure shock was clear on her pale face. It was the next day, in the morning, at breakfast. I'd managed to sneak over to the Apollo table, and give Alyssa my offer.

"Dakota, I just don't know if-" She was stuttering. That was new.

I knelt down so I could talk with only her hearing. "It's not like I'm proposing."

Wait a sec . . .

I stood back up, leaning close to her face. "Alyssa, will you go?" I gave her my best puppy eyes- you know, where you make your eyes watery pits that girls just can't resist.

"Y-yeah," she mumbled, seeming unnerved. "Now will you get away from the table?"

I grinned. "Thanks."

Yes, I asked Alyssa to go on my quest with me. What about it?

She was smart, quick-witted, great with a bow and arrow . . . and plus it seemed right. I mean, _the archer shall rise? _Has to be an Apollo kid.

I was giving her the outlook that I wasn't nervous.

But I was sooo scared.

I was actually leaving camp. I mean, I guessed I'd been trained pretty well, but it was pretty nerve racking to think about leaving with only two other kids and our wits. Of course, wits wouldn't be a problem for me. Alyssa, on the other hand . . .

Ha. I made myself smile.

I slid back into my empty Zeus table and began eating my scrambled eggs.

"Hey, Dakota."

I looked up.

Annette was standing at the edge of my table. Her eyes were creepily bright, and her usual goofy grin was set on her face. "I heard you're going on a quest," she said.

I almost dropped my fork. Where had she heard that? I hadn't told anyone but Alyssa!

"Anyway, could you pick me to go with you? Pleeeaaase?"

Wow. Um, this was . . . awkward.

"Uh, maybe," I muttered.

That seemed to satisfy her enough. "OK!" She turned and flounced off to the Demeter cabin's table, where a bunch of kids wearing "Save the Earth" shirts sat. When she sat, all the female demigods leaned in to hear what she was saying. When they finished, they all turned to look at me, smiling.

I grinned. One of them was kind of cute. Maybe I didn't need to date an Aphrodite girl.

* * *

"You want me to go with you?" His eyes widened. "Dude- we're not even friends!" He shuffled his feet anxiously.

This was annoying. How terrible it must be to be a satyr, breaking the news to a half-blood and getting this reaction when you offered them to come to camp.

"So what?" I replied, irritated. "I'm asking you to come!"

"Why?" He crossed his arms.

"Truth?"

Nod.

I leaned in so only he could hear me. "Annette wants to come with me and Alyssa."

"Oh." Understanding flooded his eyes and he grinned. "So you don't have to deal with her, you want me to come." The smile faded. "Thanks."

"Not just cause of that!" I retorted. "You're a good fighter, and you have some of your mother's abilities . . ."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Dakota."

"And you can charm enemies, and- wait, you'll go?" I froze.

"Yeah, sure. I've been wanting to get out of camp for a while." A mischeivous smirk spread over his face.

"Awesome!" Me, Alyssa, and him- we were all set!

"And I want to impress Charlie . . ." A wistful look misted his eyes.

"Sure," I mumbled. "Thanks, Caleb!"

* * *

Later that day, after dinner but before sing-along, I was packing anxiously for the quest when someone knocked on my door. Stuffing the t-shirt I'd been packing in the backpack, I stood up, exhaling, and went to open it.

"Hi," Annette said.

Ooh.

"I heard you picked Caleb and Alyssa to accompany you," she said.

Ooooooh.

"Well, yeah," I started. "Because-" My mind was racing. I'd been known at my boarding schools to talk myself out of practically every situation, but as surprsing as it may be, I'd never been in this one.

"It's OK."

I paused and gave her a look. She'd asked me to take her, too, and I'd asked Caleb without even thinking of it. Looking back on it, it was really rude.

"What?" I squinted at her, trying to understand. I'd clearly rejected her offer, and she was cool with it?

"It's fine by me." She shrugged. "Good luck!" She gave me that same weird grin and skipped back towards the Demeter cabin.

I closed the door, thoroughly confused. What the . . .

To take my mind off things, I resumed packing.

* * *

"RUN!" the taller girl screamed. A mixture of rain and tears soaked her face. Her red hair flew around her in the raging wind.

"I am!" The other girl, a shorter blonde with green eyes, yelled back as she sprinted after her. Rain pelted down on them, biting their skin wherever it was exposed.

I watched, rooted to my spot, as they ran past me. It was dark and foggy; I couldn't make out much with sight. There was sand beneath my sneakers, and I could hear waves crashing heavily against the shore- I was on a beach.

"Hurry up! It's gonna catch us!" the first girl, with the bloodred hair, shrieked again. Her voice was frantic, but I couldn't detect any fear.

"No it won't! The brute's too slow," the blonde girl shot back. Though her reply was bitter, I could, however, hear exasperation and panic in her shrill voice.

I watched as they stopped to catch their breath, their hair whipping around them and the hoods of their sweatshirts falling off every time they tried to put them up. Each of them had some sort of small bag- like the bag I was packing for my quest. They crouched, panting, in the sand, eyes darting frantically around them.

What the Hades was going on? What were they running from?

An angry roar pierced the air. It sent a shudder up my spine, and that was before a large shadow loomed out of the black fog.

The taller girl grabbed her friend's arm. "Get up!" she hissed, dragging her to her feet and pulling her into a dash.

The beast screeched again. As it lumbered closer, I felt my mouth go dry, even though I knew it couldn't hurt me.

It was huge- at least 15 feet tall. It took slow steps, but the ground would shake every time one of its feet hit the ground. And the worst part about it was that it had one eye. One giant, murky brown eye that was bloodshot with fury.

"RUN!" I wanted to scream at the girls. "IT'S GAINING ON YOU!"

They scrambled furiously through the sand, but I knew the monster would get to them. I struggled to move, but I was just in the background. Just watching.

The shorter girl tripped as she strained to run faster. In her dazed state, she couldn't roll right back up and keep running.

"No!" the redhead girl shouted as the beast reached down to grab her friend. She drew a sword- black as the night sky, sending another chill up my back, and slashed in a horizontal arc at the monster's hand. It shied away momentarily at the minor threat, and the other girl took this as an opportunity to scrambled behind a dune to recover.

The first girl stared up defiantly at the assailant. "Come on!" she yelled. "Attack me!"

The great brute swung its meaty hand down at her, aiming to swipe her into the air, but somehow the girl managed to leap onto its hand and scale up its arm (which was like, huge) until she was clinging to its shoulder.

The monster roared indignantly as the girl stood shakily and kicked at its neck in anger.

Then I saw something that would've looked amazing in an action movie.

The girl leaped off the monster's shoulder (at which point I thought: ARE YOU CRAZY? before I realized her plan) and twisted in midair. In the split second when she was in front of the beast's face, she heaved the dark sword forward, like throwing a spear.

It pierced the beast's eye, directly in the pupil, and it let out a terrible scream- an anguished yell as it slowly dissolved into yellow dust from the point of impact.

The girl landed most ungracefully on the sand. Her breathing was coming in short gasps.

The other girl weakly crawled out from behind the dune. When she saw her injured friend, she gasped and began fiddling with a Ziploc bag. "Oh my gods, oh my gods," she murmured.

After getting it open and removing something that looked like lemon squares, she hurried over to her companion and fed her one of them.

"Ambrosia," the other girl mumbled. "Thanks."

"Don't die," the blonde girl said in response. "We've been away from camp long enough. We've found what we needed. We need to get back."

"Yeah," the redhead croaked. Cold sweat was running down her pale face. "After I sleep."

I woke with a start, shooting bolt upright like a bullet in my bed. Running anxious hands through my hair, I tried to slow my breathing, but I was short of breath.

The dream had seemed so real . . . and those girls . . . I felt like I knew them somehow . . .

So much for getting a good night's sleep before the quest . . .

**I added the last part so there would be one good part on this . . . :P Sorry the other paragraphs were so short and dumb, but it's a filler, right? Right. See you next time, and again, HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D**


	10. Chiron Gives Me the Key Chain of Doom

**Heeeeeeeeeey what up! I'm updating again! I really don't have much else to say, so I'll just get to the story. Oh, and I go back to school on the 4th, so updates will be slower after that. Sorry. :P **

**Disclaimer: PJO is Rick Riordan's, not mine. : ( **

Chapter Ten: Chiron Gives Me the Key Chain of Doom

I woke the next morning feeling slightly tired, but not so tired that I was practically asleep on my feet.

"Quest," I told myself. "Quest."

After I pulled on jeans and my Camp Half-Blood shirt, the bell for breakfast rang, and I walked over there and sat at my vacant table.

Everything followed its normal routine- muttering, "Zeus," as I scraped some sausages into the fire, eating alone as usual. I should've been all antsy, but I was strangely calm. Like calm before the storm. Odd calm.

After finishing my scrambled eggs, I waited until Chiron's back was turned, then sneaked over to Alyssa's table. Unfortunately she was on the end, so I had to make some other kid scoot over so I could slide in beside her.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey," she replied, giving me an odd look. "Why are you sitting over here?"

"Maybe I want to talk to my _companion_ before we go on our _quest_."

She rolled her eyes, but she still looked nervous.

"I've been thinking."

"Wow."

"No, I mean-" I sighed and gave a quick scale of the table. Some of the other kids were catching on that I was here. The boy I'd made move was giving me dagger eyes. Ignoring them, I turned back to Alyssa. "I mean, I have no weapon of my own."

"Huh?" She frowed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you have your bow and arrow, and Caleb has a dagger. But I don't have a weapon."

"Oh. That's not good." She resumed spreading butter on her toast.

"What do you mean, 'that's not good'?" I shot at her. "That's terrible! I'm gonna need a weapon."

"Dakota Swift!"

Great. I turned towards the Big House's table. Mr. D was playing Super Mario, seeing as he was done eating, but Chiron had rose out of his wheelchair into full centaur form. That little Apollo kid was standing beside him.

"Move back you your table, please."

It was one of those moments where I should've been blushing like crazy but I wasn't. I stood up from my fake seat at the Apollo table, gave Chiron my best grin, and strolled back towards the Zeus table, where I began to eat again.

* * *

Alyssa, Caleb, and I were all standing at the top of Half-Blood Hill after lunch. Alyssa was pacing around like a madwoman, asking if Caleb and I had everything.

Right now she was busy pestering Caleb, so I had time to check my own bag. Change of clothes, nectar and ambrosia, $100 in mortal money, and 10 golden drachmas (Olympian money) that I could use to Iris-message (really cool). I was all set.

"Dagger?" Alyssa was saying as I rezipped my bag.

Caleb let out one last sigh. "Yes, Alyssa. Gods, you're worse than my dad before we go camping."

I gave him a look that said, Camping? He rolled his eyes.

Now Alyssa moved over to me. "Do you have-"

I cut her off. "Clothes, nectar, ambrosia, money and drachmas- yes." I swung my bag over my shoulder and smiled.

"Weapon, was what I was going to say." Alyssa crossed her arms and gave me her trademark "idiot" look.

"Oh, no. I don't need one. I can just use my wits, or I can supervise you two."

Caleb stifled a snicker next to me.

"Dakota, you need to get serious."

"Yes, Mom."

"You-" She paused as someone yelled, "Dakota!"

I turned around. Chiron, cantering up the hill with something in his hand.

I gave Alyssa my deluxe I-told-you-so smirk.

"This is yours," Chiron said breathlessly, dropping something into my hand.

I examined it. It looked like one of those cheap souvenir backpack chains. This one was a little stormcloud with a single yellow bolt of lightning coming down from it. Looked very useless.

"This is a chain that goes on your backpack," I said stupidly. I took off my bag and set it down. "Do you want me to put it on as like, a good luck charm?"

Chiron's eyes twinkled with amusement. "Tap it in the center."

I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes, but I did. I tapped my right index finger on the center of the storm cloud.

I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but the next thing I knew, I was holding a wicked sword. It was double-edged, silver blade. The hilt had a sapphire implanted in it. A spiraling lightning pattern traced up the blade. The key chain was dangling off the end of the hilt, connected to it by a loop.

"Wow."

I tested it by slicing behind me. It was perfectly balanced. Like it was made for me.

"This is awesome!" I said. "How do I-"

"Tap the sapphire."

I touched the gemstone, and I was holding the key chain again.

"Sweet," I started, "but, like, what if I lose it?"

"It'll appear on any bag you're carrying with you, as a key chain," Chiron smiled.

"Does it have a name?" I inquired. I was so excited to finally have my own sword, a cool weapon for me! This was just awesome!

"Ventus," Chiron told me. "It means-"

"Wind, in Latin," Caleb translated. He turned to look at me. "Cool."

I grinned and shoved Ventus's chain in my pocket. "Thanks, Chiron," I said.

He made a motion for me to lean in. I stepped forwardso I could hear him.

"Be careful," the old satyr whispered. "Children of the Big Three are easy to sniff out."

"I can handle them," I replied back.

"Make your father proud," Chiron said. "No small task."

I snickered. "I can do it."

Chiron gave a sigh, but he didn't seem sad. "Argus will take you into the city," he said, raising his voice so we could all hear him. "Then, you're on your own."

"Where's Argus?" Alyssa asked.

Chiron pointed.

Our heads all turned. Argus, I knew, was the guy who had eyes everywhere. He was in a black suit, standing by an open driver door's seat to a black limo.

I had never been in a limo.

"First one to touch the trunk gets dibs on the best seat," I muttered.

Alyssa looked over at me. "You're going to lose."

"Ditto," Caleb smirked.

We all took off as one.

Hey, our quest hadn't started yet. No need to be serious.

**Yeah, not the best . . . I can't remember if Argus drove a limo or not . . . probably not, but whatever. I apologize for the not-so-great chapter, but Dakota needed a weapon, right? **

**Dakota: =swings Ventus= Right! **

**Alyssa: =sigh=**

**Caleb: . . .**

**Well, see you next time! Any ideas for how to start off the quest? Tell me! ; ) **


	11. Flirting Gets Me in Trouble

**HEEEEEY wassup you guys. Sorry, writer's block managed to snag me yet again, : ( so I couldn't think of what to write next. :P So, I'm just going with the flow of my writing brain. Don't worry, it usually has good ideas . . . **

**Disclaimer: um . . . . you should already know, right? I don't own anything . . .**

Chapter Eleven: Flirting Gets Me In Trouble

Argus dropped us off a few blocks away from my neighborhood. After I nodded at his questioning blink, (which looked weird with all his eyes), he'd gotten into the limo and driven off.

I gazed up at the pale sky afternoon sky. it was just a normal day in New York- an orchestra of blaring traffic horns, people flowing past us like we were stones in a river, and the skyscrapers towering above us.

But now I was seeing my city in a new light. Any person strolling by us casually could be a monster- the same guy at the hot dog stand across the street, the trio of three hot girls that passed us with cell phones glued to their ears and shoes that looked like they were Slinkys.

As I took in our surroundings, my companions just stood there in silence.

"So, um, suggestions for where we start to look?" I said hesitantly.

"What?" Alyssa whirled on me. "You didn't plan this out?" Her voice was shrill. "You're fricking leading the quest!"

"That's kind of . . . irresponsible, Dakota," Caleb said quietly. He was fiddling with the side of his belt- where he'd cleverly sheathed his magic dagger.

"I did to plan it out!" I protested. "I just would like to know your opinions." Crossing my arms, I glared defiantly at Alyssa.

Caleb rolled his eyes. "Well, we could . . . go to the mall . . ." he said.

Now it was my turn to gawk in disbelief.

"The _mall_?" I repeated.

Caleb's face flushed and he sheepishly shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Why would we go to the mall? Enlighten me," I said.

"Well, there's a lot of conflict there," Caleb muttered. "And this is the Apple of Discord, right?"

Huh. Not half bad.

But I wasn't going to let him win this easily.

"Yeah, cause girls are arguing over their Aeropostale hoodies," I mumbled.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Dakota, it's a good idea," she said. "Let's just check it out, OK?"

Stubbornly, I gave her my Are-you-kidding? look.

Caleb was staring at me with an unreadable expression. Alyssa was looking at me with a hopeful light in her chocolate brown eyes.

"OK," I said finally. "But I doubt this'll work!"

* * *

About two hours later, we had scoured practically all of the mall- just three stores left. That left one for each of us. Goodie.

We met back up at the food court after I searched through Dick's Sporting Goods, Alyssa looked through Hollister, and Caleb poked around the Gap.

"So, where do we look next?" Alyssa asked. She was really antsy. Either her ADHD was acting up, or she was real nervous about something. I decided to go with the second option.

I put my arm around her while taking a sip from my newly-bought Coke. "What's up with you?"

She tensed, then shrugged my arm off her shoulders and gave me a What? glare.

"Well, there's only three stores that we haven't looked in," Caleb observed, pointing at the YOU ARE HERE sign by our table. "Victoria's Secret, Aeropostale, and Banana Republic." He wrinkled his nose. "Girl stores."

"I'll look through Victoria's Secret," I volunteered, standing up with a mischeivous grin.

"Whatever, you're leading." Caleb waved his hand at me. "I'll take Banana Republic . . . that leaves Alyssa with Aeropostale."

"Yes," I hissed, pumping my fist and tossing my drink into the garbage.

"Waitwaitwait!" Alyssa jumped to her feet. "Victoria's Secret for Dakota . . . Not a good idea."

I made the "no" face at her, shaking my head vigorously and widening my eyes. But she continued talking anyway.

"I think me and him should trade."

"No way am I going into Aeropostale," I said, folding my arms over my chest. "That place is for prisses and girly boys. Basically, the Aphrodite cabin. I wouldn't be caught dead there."

Ten minutes later, I was sorting through some graphic Ts in Aeropostale. Fall Out Boy played from the speakers, and a bunch of tween girls were giggling and staring at a bunch of tween boys with long hair and tight jeans.

Gods, this sucked.

I pretended to be interested in a navy blue hoodie, so I could get closer to one of the apple decorations. They were fake, spray-painted gold (why would that be in an Aeropostale store?), but it was worth a look, right?

I moved over to the decorations, giving it an inconspicious glance before "examining" the jacket. Then, casting a quick look over my shoulder to make sure no one was paying attention to me, I ducked down by the basket of fake apples and began picking through them.

They were all just fake pieces of styrofoam. Just a stupid prop. I cursed under my breath as I turned each one, looking for Eris's trademark fight-starter quote on the back, but none of them had it.

"Um, excuse me?" a too-polite voice of a girl said.

I looked up. An employee wearing skinny jeans, Vans, and a graphic t-shirt was staring at me with an odd look in her hazel eyes. Her nametag read "Lexi". She couldn't have been much older than me.

"Are you lost?" she said, narrowing her eyes at me but keeping a perfect white smile plastered on her face.

"In your eyes," I grinned, shooting upright. My mind raced- I needed a cover.

"Cute." She pursed her lips. "Did you know that you can be arrested for tampering with our decorations?"

"Uh, yeah, do I know you from somewhere?" I switched the subject off of me. "Cause you look really familiar. Maybe I've been the one dashing across your dreams." I winked at her.

"Wow, you have some cheesy pick-up lines." She smiled confidently at me.

"Wow, you have some-" Before I could deflect her remark, she had shoved me up against one of the columns in the store and was holding me back by the shoulders.

"Hey, what-" I said. Then I smelled her.

She smelled like perfume and livestock.

I stared down at her legs. One was like a robot's, the other a horse's.

Great. I had run into an empousai at Aeropostale.

"Play along or you die," she breathed in my ear.

"Feisty," I said, swallowing. "I like it."

She grabbed my arm with an iron grip and led me behind the check-out desk, where the tween girls had started to gather. A male employee who looked rather . . . er . . . _feminine _cast a glance at her, nodded energeticly, and turned towards the girls. "Hi," he said. "Is that all you will be purchasing . . ."

That was all I could hear of him before Lexi opened a door that read "Storage Room" in big, block letters that weren't too torturous on my dyslexia.

In the back, instead of packages of new shipping of clothes, it was just a simple room. With a chair in it. Like on cop shows, in interrogation.

This wasn't good.

Lexi pushed me into the chair and shoved it against the wall. My head smacked against the concrete, and my vision blurred momentarily. When I regained feeling in my arms, they were tied behind me, and my feet were tied to the legs of the chair.

Oh, crap.

Lexi had now gone from hot girl to full-fledged empousai. Her mismatched legs clanged against the floor as she stalked slowly, intimidatingly, towards me. Her skin, as Jessi's had been, was chalky white. Her eyes had morphed from hazel to bloodred, and her hair had burst into crackling flames.

She stopped maybe a yard away from me and said, "Who are you?"

"I'm your next boyfriend," I said, managing a grin.

She pulled the chair away from the wall and then shoved it over so the legs were off the floor. I let out an automatic grunt when I hit the ground.

Lexi towered over me, hands clenched into fists. "Are you the Third Child?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't. My mouth had gone dry, and my head hurt. I was in deep doodoo.

Lexi whirled away from me, her fire hair sending sparks flying at the floor. "You are," she hissed. "As she expected . . ." Spinning back towards me, she launched into a speech.

"If you are the Third Child, do you know how much chaos you would cause? How much disaster, calamity, and pain for demgods and gods alike?" She bent down over the chair- a demon inches away from my face. "So much fighting and blood- and this is just the prologue of what you're going to live through, Dakota." Her voice was almost sorrowful. I didn't bother to ask how she knew my name.

"Great then," I mumbled sarcastically. "Just like an action movie. I love action movies. Especially James Bond. Did you know I can name all the actors who played his character?"

Keep stalling. Keep stalling. Alyssa and Caleb have to know something's up now. Adrenaline pulsed through me, sending my thoughts through my head in rushes.

Lexi's eyes widened at my statement. "How can you be so careless?" she screeched. "You and the other two . . . you will make-"

She didn't finish her sentence.

Why?

Because Caleb kicked the door open. In the millisecond Lexi turned around, he took in all the details of what was going on. He unsheathed his dagger and slashed Lexi across the shoulder. She let out a miserable wail as she disintigrated.

"No!" I yelled as Caleb cut me free from the ropes. "Caleb, she was-"

"Trying to kill you? Yeah, I know," he muttered. After helping me up, he said, "So, empousai at Aeropostale? Ha."

I was speechless. Well, almost. "Caleb, she was telling me about my destiny," I said quietly. "How this whole quest is just a prologue for what's to come."

Silence.

Then: "Oh," Caleb murmured. "Sorry."

"It's fine," I said, standing up straight. "I'll find out sooner or later. Come on."

We sneaked out of the Aeropostale storage room and back to the food court, where Alyssa was pacing anxiously by our previous table.

"You're OK!" she exclaimedwhen she saw me. "Caleb and I came back, and you weren't here, and then Caleb ran off to Aeropostale, and-" She sighed. "You're OK."

I gave her an odd look. "Uh, yeah. Well, no luck at the mall, which I knew would happen all along." I narrowed my eyes at Caleb, who crossed his arms defensively.

"Hey man, I just saved your butt. Be a bit more respectful."

Rolling my eyes, I picked up my pack and unhooked Ventus's key chain. I shoved it into my pocket before swinging my bag over my shoulder.

Better safe than sorry.

As the three of us strolled out of the mall, I draped my arm over Alyssa's shoulders. She glared at me. "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed.

I looked at her. "Well, if Ben thinks we're dating, we might as well prove him right."

"Ugh . . ." She let out a groan. "Gods, help me . . ."

I laughed.

**So, whadaya think of that chappie? Hopefully it makes up for the long-ish wait. :P Well, until next time . . .**


	12. We Ride in a God's Ferrari

**Wow. You know what? I'm PO'd. I had this chapter written Saturday the 23rd, and somehow when I closed the laptop, it didn't save the thing. So I had to rewrite it. All over again. From the beginning. It was so frickin stupid . . . Sorry this took so long. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. =sulks in the corner=**

Chapter Twelve: We Ride in a God's Ferrari 

I had another weird dream that night.

The same two girls I'd seen before- I was now calling them Blondie and Redhead- were walking briskly down the stormy beach again, occasional flashes of lightning illuminating the clouds with fake daylight. Well, Blondie was walking briskly. Redhead was trudging along, arms hugging her body, as she watched her Converse sneakers sink into the sand with each step.

"Hurry up!" Blondie hissed, looking over her shoulder. Her green eyes were full of rage and anxiety.

Redhead shot her a glare. "We've been gone all summer, looking for him," she snapped. "Why do you think he'd be there now?"

"Chiron . . . he's probably worried sick, and plus, in the months we've been gone, what have we found out about him?" Blondie shot back. "Nothing!"

Redhead opened her mouth to say something, then just kept walking.

"He's been there," Blondie whispered, green eyes wide and hopeful. "I know it."

I woke with a start, hitting my head against something. "Ow . . ." Slightly disoriented, I blinked to clear my vision. Where was I again?

Oh yeah. On a train, in the window seat by the booth, heading west to Pennsylvania. Across from me, drooling slightly, was a snoring Caleb. Yawning, I watched as countryside passed us out the window.

I sat up from where I'd been slumped, and was about to slide out of the seat when my arm connected with someone else's arm.

Alyssa was asleep, beside me. Her red hair tumbled down to her shoulders, and her breathing was evenly paced. I grinned.

I tapped her shoulder. She stirred, but didn't wake.

I leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "Alyssa."

Now her eyes shot open and she straightened abruptly. For a moment she looked disoriented before realization of where she was flooded back into her face. She caught me watching her with a smirk on my face and said, "What?"

"Good morning, beautiful," I said kindly.

She rolled her eyes. "Where are we?"

"A train," I said, tapping my right temple.

"No dip," Alyssa retorted. "Where?"

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the seat this morning," I said, leaning forward and propping my chin in my hand. "Did you want the window seat?"

"Where are we, Dakota?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

"We're about to enter Hickory, Pennsylvania," I answered. "I suggest you wake Caleb."

Shooting me an annoyed glare, Alyssa reached across the table and tapped Caleb's arm.

He snorted when he sat up, eyes flickering open. He had the same confused look that Alyssa had for a moment before he recognized where he was and what he was doing. Nodding at us, he unzipped his backpack and tossed us some breakfast bars (Ooh, delicious.). "Morning," he mumbled.

"Hey," I said.

"We're almost in Pennsylvania," Alyssa told him, unwrapping her breakfast bar.

"Hey, yours is chocolate," I noted, nodding at Alyssa's breakfast. "Wanna trade?"

Alyssa took a big chomp out of her breakfast, then gave me an innocent look. "What?"

I cringed. "Never mind."

After "enjoying" the last couple minutes of our lovely train ride, the three of us left the train and wandered aimlessly around the station until lunchtime. Eris's Apple of Discord could have very well been there, because I heard some not-so-nice words being yelled at some sneaky-looking teenagers wearing baggy clothes.

Only when we entered the parking lot did I see something beautiful.

A red Ferrari.

With silver wheels and an amazingly clean hood. It was my dream car.

I nearly dropped my backpack. Forget about my jaw.

"Cool car," Caleb commented.

"Yeah," Alyssa said dismissively. "Now, where-"

"Guys!" I whirled around. "It's not just a cool car! It's a _Ferrari!" _

"And it's mine."

In unison, Caleb, Alyssa and I all turned around. A guy, maybe late 20s, early 30s was strolling casually towards us. He looked like one of those beach boys, with sandy blonde hair and a deep summer tan. He wore swim trunks and a white t-shirt. Flip-flops flapped against the pavement as he flashed us a perfect white grin.

"Dude, your car's awesome," I said.

"Dakota!" Caleb hissed, elbowing me in the ribs.

"Ow!" I protested, shoving his arm away.

"Do you know who you're talking to?" Caleb retorted, giving me a worried look.

That's when Alyssa said, "Dad?"

* * *

"Hey, Alyssa!" Apollo said happily, clapping a fatherly hand on my friend's back. Turning with a slightly more serious face towards Caleb and I, he inquired, "How's the quest?"

"Unsuccessful so far, my lord," Caleb answered quietly, shuffling his feet nervously.

I said nothing, instead biting my lip. I'd just called a Greek god "dude", and casually commented on his car, like I was talking to someone at school.

Alyssa had told me that if you PO'd a god, they'd blast you to bits, no second thoughts.

"That's great," Apollo said, grinning. He shook back his hair and then said, "Hey, you guys need a ride?" He jerked his thumb back towards the Ferrari.

My eyes widened. Seriously . . . .

"No, no, no," Alyssa said, frowning at me. "It's fine."

Obviously she'd been pretty used to being around an almighty Greek god if she was talking to him like this. But Apollo just smiled at her. "I think your friends think otherwise."

So, five minutes later, we were in Apollo's Ferrari cruising down some backroad in Hickory, PA. Riding in a Ferrari was awesome. Seriously. Awesome.

"So, you guys are heading west, right?" Apollo said casually after a while. "Good choice."

"Dad . . ." Alyssa muttered awkwardly.

"What? God of prophecies. I see all, know all . . ." He leaned in to Alyssa's ear. "And I also know that you . . ."

Alyssa sighed and slumped in her seat. Apollo whispered something I couldn't identify, and then turned back to driving, flashing Caleb and I a blinding white smile.

"I feel a haiku coming," Apollo said, raising one finger as if victorious. He cleared his throat. Alyssa groaned and covered her ears. Caleb did, too.

Confused, I wondered why. Not like he was singing, right?

_"My kid needs my help, _

_I shall gladly lend a hand, _

_I am a great dad."_

He then grinned at me. "How was that?"

"Uh . . . as awesome as your car," I managed.

Oh. My. Gods. That was awkward . . .

Apollo pumped his fist, steering the red Ferrari with one hand.

"Oh, look. They're sleeping." He motioned at Alyssa beside him, and Caleb, beside me. A minute ago, they'd been covering their ears trying to block out Apollo's bad poetry, now they were sound asleep?

Oh. It took me a while to get that Apollo wanted to say something private to me.

I swallowed nervously and focused on a hole in the knee of my jeans.

"You're gonna endure a lot, Dakota."

Apollo's voice made me jolt. I looked at him through the rearview mirror; his face had a serious air to it now.

"What? I mean, lord?"

"Many battles, few defeats- you're lucky there. But one battle . . . sorry to say . . . will change everything." Apollo's eyes were faraway, a grim look set on his face. He cast a saddening glance down at Alyssa's sleeping form. "You can save her once. The next, no."

Utterly confused, I watched as Apollo's melancholy face focused back onto the road. "Now go to sleep, Dakota," he said, snapping his fingers.

"But I'm not tired-" I managed, before a wave of drowsiness flooded my body. Suddenly my eyelids were heavy, and my brain couldn't form a thought that made sense. I was losing consciousness. The smooth ride of the Ferrari's wheels made it feel like I was floating. The soft hum of the motor didn't help.

I closed my eyes and fell into blackness.

That time, I had the weirdest dream yet.

I got brief bursts of unfamiliar scenes. They appeared in flashes, like Jason Bourne recovering his memories. Static would cover some parts, so I could barely make out what I was seeing. It was like a TV struggling to get a signal in the rain.

First, there was this . . . hallway. With two guards standing in front of a cracked-open door. I was seeing it in first person, like, from someone's eyes in a video game. The person moved forward, down the corrider towards the door.

The guards . . . I realized they weren't guards. They were skeletons, in Civil War soldier uniforms and big, army boots. They were armed with rifles, standing alert at each side of the door. They didn't seem to notice as I crept forward more, to peer inside what the door was hiding.

I opened the door just a little bit further. The black stone was cold beneath my fingertips. I peeked over . . . and stifled a scream.

There was nothing in the room- nothing, except for a throne. Made of human bones.

Fused together to make a large, kingly chair, with two lamp posts burning blue fire on each side. The throne was empty. It looked like it was from a horror movie.

Gasping for breath, I closed the door.

The static covered the vision, and for a moment I only saw black. Then, the next burst:

A large, bird-like thing, with leathery skin and sharp talons was flying high, high into the air, clutching something in its claws. My vision zoomed in like a camera so I could see what it was holding. As I watched, a piercing scream cut through the air like a knife.

A girl, writhing in the thing's grasp . . . I couldn't see her face . . .

Something fell to the ground at my feet. I knelt to my knees to see what it was . . .

A quiver.

Following another odd static transition, I found myself back at the doors again. This time I was watching a boy, with dirty blonde hair and holding a double-edged blade, running towards the stone door. There were no skeleton guards posted, so the boy made no move to stop running.

He shoved the doors open, standing there, chest heaving for a little while. He seemed to notice something important, because he began to run again, but froze at a girl's voice.

"No! Go back!"

I watched helplessly as the doors began to close, dust rising up from the floor. The boy whirled around so he was facing me with wide blue eyes. I caught a quick glimpse of his face as the doors closed on him.

My dream faded to black, and I woke with a cold sweat in the backseat of Apollo's Ferrari. The sky was dark, with stars speckling it like freckles.

There was a lump in my throat as I stared at my still-sleeping friends. Caleb's head was propped against the window, breathing deeply. His hand clenched and unclenched around Mirage, his dagger, as if he were fighting something in his dream.

I peered over the passenger seat at Alyssa. I couldn't see her face because she was turned away from me, but I pictured her as I'd seen her on the train-peaceful. Glancing at Apollo, I saw his face looked much older when it was grim. No more happy sun god. He cast me a quick look, and his eyes were full of sadness.

Would I cause sadness? What would happen in my future? What if . . . what if Lexi had been right? What if I was meant to be a destruction, along with two other children of the Big Three? What if this whole prophecy was the downfall of everything?

I let out a sigh, then pressed my cheek against the window and stared at nothing. I thought about my mom. What was she doing right now? Was she worried about me? Probably sitting in her pajamas in our apartment, watching chick flicks and eating popcorn, all alone. Probably missing me and hoping I was OK.

I diverted my thoughts into thinking about the quest.

Where were we supposed to go next? What was going to happen?

"Go to Chicago. You'll find someone there."

Apollo's voice once again shook me out of my thoughts.

"Who?" I asked, sitting up.

"You'll know when you see her. She'll be in trouble." A faint grin settled over his face. "Being you, Dakota, you'll want to save her despite who she is."

Great. Mysterious-ness. Wonderful.

"Uh . . . we don't exactly have much money to buy plane tickets," I stuttered.

"No problem." Apollo reached into that little thing between the driver's seat and the passenger seat (don't know what it's called) and passed me a credit card. "You've got all you need here."

The card was golden, shiny in the moonlight. It read at the bottom, HELPFROMHERMES.

"Gift from the god of travelers," Apollo said. "It'll help, I suppose . . . but only when you need it."

"Cool," I said, pocketing the card and leaning back casually. "Chicago, it is . . ."

But I was totally freaked out. Because the boy in the dream . . . had been me.

**So, sorry about the long wait, and uh . . . until next time, peace out! And yeah, Marshpelt, Dakota will get to use his sword soon!**

**Dakota: I better!**

**Tell me what you thought of the dreams, and what you think will happen in Chicago. : ) **

**All right . . . bye!**


	13. A Lawyer Goes Berserk

**Me: Hey. What's up? **

**Dakota: The sky. **

**Alyssa: The gods. **

**Me: ...**

**Disclaimer: I dOn'T oWn PeRcY jAcKsOn AnD tHe OlYmPiAnS. Whoa, that looks like some spy code or something . . . :P **

Chapter Thirteen: A Lawyer Goes Berserk 

Now, I'd been on planes before, but now that I knew I was a son of Zeus, it was a lot more awesome.

Flying was just so . . . amazing. When you flew, you were free. You were soaring, full of bliss. Sure, you were on an airplane, but still . . . to me, it felt just epic.

Naturally I called the window seat. Looking down upon the clouds made me feel . . . I can't even describe the feeling. Like a king.

And knowing my dad, Lord of the Sky, was above me somewhere made me feel even greater.

What was even better than that was when the plane lurched downwards as we began our descent into Chicago. It was a sudden jolt- it didn't scare me, but it startled the person next to me.

"Ohmigods!" Alyssa hissed, gripping the armrest and my wrist tightly.

Lazily I averted my gaze from the window to stare at her. "What?"

"Didn't that kind of scare you?" she whispered, letting go of my hand and scooting the slightest bit away from me, towards a sleeping Caleb on the other side of her.

"Nope," I said, grinning. "But it scared you."

"Did not!" She unsuccessfully tried to cover up the fact, her face flushing.

"You grabbed my hand," I pointed out.

"I. . ." She had no response to that.

I laughed and went back to staring out the window.

After landing, we stopped at a random Chili's in the airport to eat lunch. Chicago was a big city, so after telling my friends about Apollo's odd foreshadowing, we agreed on scouring the main part of the city and buying ourselves into a hotel for the night.

After dumping the remainer of our food and leaving a small tip for the hot waitress, we caught a cab out of the airport and rode into the city. On the way, I thought about the prophecy.

So far nothing had come true. We hadn't said any goodbyes (which was probably a good thing). We hadn't found the apple. This whole thing so far just sucked.

But when we walked out into the bustling street, that was all about to change.

People constantly pushed past us as we just stood there, looking like mini-sized lost tourists by a burnt-out street lamp. "Where do we look?" Alyssa asked, gazing around at the crowds moving anxiously around us.

"I dunno," I mumbled. "Apollo wasn't real specific . . ."

"Then let's just walk around," Caleb suggested.

"What else can we do?" I said sarcastically, turning around to face him with a grin.

We started across the street. Some lawyer lady, a cell phone held against her ear in the crook of her neck, a coffee cup in one hand, and a serious-looking briefcase in the other, was walking all briskly and professionally in her pinstripe suit and heels, and she walked right into Alyssa.

The coffeen went flying and splashed all over the front of her suit. She dropped the briefcase and the cell phone clattered onto the street. Caleb froze. I stifled a snicker. "Nice job, Alyssa."

She was all bustling around the lawyer lady like girls do, like, "I'm so sorry! Are you OK? I did not mean to do that, I'm so sorry!"

The lawyer lady looked up at her grudgingly, daintily taking a tissue from her pocket and dabbing it at her shirt. She said nothing, instead muttering, "Stupid half-bloods."

We all froze as the lawyer lady straightened, picking up her briefcase. She stared at me, and I swore her eyes were like fire. "You," she whispered. "The boy my lord warned me of . . ."

"Uh, yeah, hi," I said, shooting a glance like, _What? _at Alyssa.

She extended her arm to me. "You must come with me."

"No, thanks," I replied. "I'll just stay with my friends."

"I will use force." Her voice was threateningly promising. "I can hold grudges, child."

"What is she?" I mouthed to my friends. My hand had crept to my jeans pocket, where Ventus's key chain had started to grow warm against my leg. I wasn't sure how to use it very well, but I figured instincts would help. (Wow, that sounded really cheesy. I was probably gonna get killed by whatever the Hades this was.)

Then the lawyer began to change.

Her briefcase morphed into a fiery whip, which she slapped against the road angrily. Her striped suit became wrinkled and leathery as her fingernails stretched into bird talons. Her eyes began to glow an evil red.

"What is that?" I asked quietly, backing up.

"It's a Kindly One," Alyssa hissed. "From the Underworld."

"What do we do?"

"Run."

I didn't need to argue with that. I nodded at the monster, then turned and shoved my way onto the sidewalk, my friends at my side.

As my sneakers pounded against the sidewalk, my mind was racing along with them. A Kindly One . . . Chiron had told me that's what demigods called Furies- Hades's torturors. Great.

Why was she here? And why was she looking for me?

Casting a glance over my shoulder, I saw Demon Lawyer was following us. I imagine she just looked like a businesslady in a hurry to the mortals, but heck, she was a freaky sight for us.

"We gotta lose her!" Caleb gasped in my ear.

"You think?" Alyssa hissed at him, pushing past a random teenager who cursed angrily as she passed. "Where do we go?"

They looked at me. I scanned the street. Sure, we looked pretty weird running through a crowd, but still. If they could see the Fury, they'd think she was weird too. I watched the buildings on our right. If we could find an alleyway . . .

"Here!" I veered to the right, almost knocking Alyssa over. We sprinted down the alley.

"Hades," Caleb spat. "Look!"

The Fury was still behind us, leathery bat wings flapping. And she was gaining on us.

Ahead, there was a Dumpster and a chain fence. if we could jump onto the Dumpster, and use it as a springboard to get over the fence, we'd be home free.

"Get behind the Dumpster," I told my friends. "I'll hold her off so you guys can get over the fence."

"No way," Alyssa said firmly. "She'll fry you!"

I stared at her. Apollo had said I could save her once . . . this was my chance.

"Go!" I shoved her into Caleb, and they fell together, rolling behind the Dumpster. I skidded to a stop, and, taking a deep breath, whirled to face the Fury.

She saw me stop and landed, wings fluttering. Her whip crackled. She let out a tremendous cackle.

"Little demigods, always thinking they're big heroes," she laughed. "Well, guess what? You all die anyway!"

I just stood there, my hand creeping closer to my pocket. If I could get Ventus out . . . maybe I could . . .

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my friends trying to sneak towards the fence. Caleb shot me a they were going to escape, that meant I had to be the monster bait and lead this Fury away so they could get over.

I took out my key chain and pressed the thundercloud. Ventus, silver blade shining in the sunlight, appeared in my hand. The same rush of power pulsed through me as when I'd gotten it the first time. My hands clenched around the handle as I lowered into an awkward fighting stance.

"Wonderful," the Fury drawled. "They also always fight back."

Gritting my teeth, I prayed to my father. _Let me get this right. _And I charged, right at her.

Not smart, but there was a hidden move under it. As she raised her whip to kill me, I bunched my legs and leaped, high into the air, raising Ventus as I did. The wind whistled in my ears as I slashed downwards in a direct arc towards her she saw it coming. Her whip tangled on Ventus's blade. As I struggled to pull it out, I saw Caleb leap safely over the fence. Where was Alyssa?

While I was distracted, the Fury had succeeded in wrapping her fire whip around my sword. She ripped it from my hand and tossed it into the street. I fell back onto the ground with a grunt. I should've been thinking, _I've been defeated_ or something dramatic like that, but really, all that was going through my head was: _Fail. _

"Foolish demigod," the Fury hissed, stalking closer. "I can never be defeated. Come, to the Underworld." She extended her hand again. "He wishes to speak with you."

Dazed, I ignored her and tried to inconspiciously stare past her towards my friends. Caleb was motioning urgently at Alyssa, but she shook her head. She was holding her bow and arrow, and her quiver was slung over her shoulder. She notched an arrow and took aim. I widened my eyes at her and mouthed, "No!"

Then _it_ happened.

The Fury noticed I wasn't paying attention to her and whirled just as Alyssa fired, then turned to jump down to Caleb. In one fluid movement, with a terrible screech, the Fury launched herself into the air. The arrow whizzed under her and hit the building's exterior with a weak _clank._ Everything seemed to go in slow motion then.

The Fury got over there so fast . . . her claws grabbed Alyssa around the waist as she swooped over the fence. As soon as she had my friend in her grasp, she soared upwards into the air, cackling as Alyssa screamed and struggled.

"Now, you _must _come to the Underworld, if you wish to save your friend!" the Fury laughed, a twisted grin crossing her face as she watched Caleb and I gazing upward. "Goodbye, half-bloods!"

"Alyssa!" I called desperately.

The Fury just sniggered again and spiraled high, high into the air until Caleb and I couldn't see her anymore.

"No . . ." My shoulders sagged.

It was all my fault. All my fault . . .

"Dakota?" I looked up. Caleb's mouth was open in shock, and he pointed behind me.

What now? What could be worse than this? I turned anyway.

A familiar-looking girl, with wild blonde hair and wide eyes, was running towards Caleb and I, but she was only staring at me. A lopsided grin was on her face. "Dakota!" she called.

"Annette?" I said in awe. Then it hit me.

_Three shall journey, one replaced . . ._

_Be prepared to say three goodbyes . . . _

Let's mark off a replaced companion and the first goodbye, shall we?

**All right, I really didn't care for that chapter, but hopefully you guys enjoyed it. :P Sorry if it sucked, and I know it was a bit rushed, but I couldn't really think of much and my mom doesn't want me on the computer all day. So, uh, yeah. Oh, and if you look on my profile I've got links to pics of some of the characters, so check it out. : ) Well, until next time . . . byes!**


	14. Annette Tells Me a Secret

**Hey, guys! It's the next update of the Swift Storm! Yay? **

**Dakota: Of course it's yay! Oh wait . . . Alyssa's gone . . . =sulks=**

**Annette: It's OK, Dakota! You have me! **

**Caleb: .......**

**Me: Oh, gods. **

**Disclaimer: I'm a girl. That automatically means I'm not Rick Riordan. Unless . . . oh, no, I'm just kidding. :P**

Chapter Fourteen: Annette Tells Me a Secret

That night, after checking into a hotel with the golden Hermes credit card, Caleb and I, plus a crazy daughter of Demeter, sulked around the expensive room. Well, I sulked. Caleb was trying to act all Athena and devise a plan to get Alyssa back, and Annette was babbling on and on about something I didn't care about. I wasn't listening.

This was all my fault. I should've been able to do better than that, even in my first real battle. Even if it was a Fury . . . According to Chiron, Percy Jackson, from the first great Prophecy and one of Poseidon's kids, had defeated a Fury with one slash at my age.

Not only had I not been able to that, but the Fury had also snatched one of my friends away and taken her to the Underworld.

Which brought me to the grand question: Why did the Fury want me to come to the Underworld?

She'd said, "He wishes to speak with you."

That had to mean Hades, right? But what did he want with me? I was his nephew .. . maybe some important godly thing?

Doubt it.

I sighed and traced my index finger over the carpet. Alyssa's terrified scream as the Fury spiraled into the sky kept replaying in my head. It was exactly like my dream. Was it some sort of omen?

The thought struck me like a shock, no pun intended. I looked up, mind whirring, then stood up and paced over to the mini-fridge. Annette and Caleb watched as I dug out another Cherry Coke, popped it open, and took a long chug.

"What?" I asked crossly, surveying them over the top of the can.

"You've had, like, five of those," Annette chirped, flinging herself off the couch to stand about a foot away from me.

"That's gonna cost a lot," Caleb put in from where he was sitting seriously at the desk with the silver lamp angled on a blank piece of paper.

"So what?" I mumbled. "We have this." I picked up Hermes's card and waved it at them, before slumping back down in the corner to think.

"Sulking over there's not gonna do anything, Dakota." Caleb turned the lamp off so he could turn and look at me.

"I'm not sulking," I said lightly. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, you're obsessively drinking Cherry Cokes and you won't talk to any of us, so . . ." Annette trailed off when she saw my face. "Oh, rhetorical question. Got it."

"Dakota, let's try and put this whole thing together," Caleb suggested, coming over to sit on the bed beside my dark corner.

"That's what I'm doing," I muttered, taking another long sip of Cherry Coke before shooting him a glare.

Ignoring me, Caleb said, "Well, the Fury said she could hold grudges. That means she's Megaera, the one that's envious."

"Woohoo," I grumbled.

"And she said her lord warned her about you. And that he wished to speak with you."

"Yes, we know that," I said impatiently.

"That means Hades sent her out to look for you, right?" Caleb concluded.

"That doesn't make any sense," I said, looking up. "Apollo said I would save someone who was in trouble. I didn't save Alyssa. How can the god of prophecies be wrong?"

"He wasn't. The Fury screwed up."

Caleb and I looked at Annette, who had began to blush as she slid down against the wall opposite me. "Chiron told me I'd encounter something dangerous in Chicago when he sent me after you guys . . . he told me I was supposed to replace one of you, and that I needed to be careful." Then she stared at me. "He said you'd save me from a monster."

"The Fury didn't know who to look for," Caleb said thoughtfully. "She couldn't sniff out Annette."

"Well, we got that part lined up," I said. "Yay. That means the Fury was supposed to find Annette, and we were supposed to save her, but Megura or whatever-"

"Megaera," Caleb interrupted.

"Yeah, her-" I continued. "Couldn't find her so she just went and looked for me."

"Precisely." Annette nodded, that same goofy grin spreading across her face as she looked at me.

Ignoring her, I slid down lower to the floor. "Then . . . why'd the Fury want me to come to the Underworld so badly?"

"She said her lord wants to speak with you," Caleb said.

"Yeah, but what would Hades want to talk to me about?" I asked to no one in particular. "That makes no sense."

"Something's not right here," Caleb thought aloud, leaning back into the bed's many pillows. He cast a questioning glance at me. "Maybe Hades wants to warn you of something?"

"Then why would the Fury take Alyssa?"

"To lure you there." Caleb and I turned to Annette again. Her face had become slightly disgusted at the mention of Alyssa. "He knows you're . . . _friends _with her." The detestful expression faded. "He wants you to go to the Underworld, and since he knew you wouldn't, he decided he had to get something to bribe you with."

Wow. For a complete idiot, she was approaching this pretty logically.

"Whatever he wants to see me about must be pretty important," I said. "Important enough for one of his minions to snatch a half-blood away from the land of the living."

I stood up, crumpling the soda can. Caleb and Annette looked up at me. "Let's go save Alyssa," I stated, firing at the trash can. Swish.

"Dakota, are you forgetting about the quest? The prophecy? Eris's frickin Apple of Discord?" Caleb stood up beside me, waving his hand in my face as if reminding me.

"No, but we need to save Alyssa," I said stubbornly, crossing my arms. "We can't just leave her in the Underworld!"

Annette muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Yes, we could." I glared at her.

"Dakota, we need to focus on the biggest thing right now, and that's stopping a repeated Trojan War," Caleb said slowly, as if talking to a toddler.

"I'm not stupid," I snapped. "I know what's at stake. But Alyssa's my friend, and she's yours too. We have to save her."

Caleb's shoulders sagged and he gave me a doubtful look. "OK, give me a reason why we should go to the Underworld. Other than saving Alyssa," he added when I opened my mouth.

After thinking for a second, I realized it. The perfect reason.

"Persephone's garden."

"Huh?"

"Persephone's garden!" A grin broke out on my face. "That's the PERFECT place to hide Eris's apple! Right there, where no one would look!"

Caleb crossed his arms. "I dunno," he said cynically. "That's a perfect excuse to go save Alyssa."

Anger flickered in my chest. "Do you just want to leave her there to die?"

Caleb had nothing to say to that. I stormed outside towards the balcony and slammed the door behind me.

Once alone, I leaned against the balcony railing and stared over at the city of Chicago, fuming.

I'd known Alyssa longer than anyone else at camp. No one else knew as much about her as I did, right? I couldn't leave her in the Underworld. I just couldn't.

And Persephone's garden was the perfect place to look for the apple. It had to be there.

In an attempt to take my mind off things, I looked up at the darkening sky and glared at it. Had Zeus not heard my request? Is that why he hadn't let me save Alyssa? Or maybe this was all just some stupid test. Always a test.

"You seem upset."

"Huh-" I jolted and jumped away from the railing.

Some random teenage dude was standing on the hotel balcony beside me. He was wearing black ripped jeans, a black skull t-shirt under a (guess what?) black hoodie. There was a skull ring on his left hand. He had unruly dark hair and dark eyes to match.

"Who are you?" I demanded, my hand creeping towards the pocket where I was now keeping Ventus.

In response, without looking at me, he said, "I know you want to go to the Underworld." He then stared at me, expression unreadable. "If you really want to save your friend, meet me in that alleyway where you fought, tomorrow around dusk. I can help you out."

"What?" OK, now I was suspicious. Some random person appears on the balcony and tells me to meet him in the alley? Not someone I could trust.

"You can trust me," he said, as if reading my mind. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Cousin," he added. Then, he turned towards me and lunged at me.

Or at least I thought he was lunging at me. I raised my hands in front of my body as a shield, but he just vanished- like a ghost. He'd, like, run into the wall. Literally, into it.

I gaped at the space he'd just been standing in. Where had he gone? How had he gotten here in the first place?

Weird. Just . . . weird. I was dumbfounded.

"Dakota?"

Annette was staring at me from the sliding door, one hand unconsciously on the side. She was looking sort of nervous, instead of her usual crazy grin.

"Yeah." Attempting to look casual, I unfroze myself from the balcony railing and went back to leaning over it, watching the city lights blinking.

"Can I talk to you? In private?"

"Sure, whatever."

I heard the sliding door close and Annette walked over and joined me in looking out over the city. "Are . . . you OK?" she said, sounding a bit awkward.

"I'm fine," I mumbled. I didn't look at her. My heart was still pounding after the odd run-in with that guy, and now I wasn't sure what to think. My ADHD was acting up. I began drumming my fingers on the railing.

"Uh . . .all right."

What was up with Annette? She never usually acted like this . . .

Silence rested between us. I had nothing to say, and she seemed to be trying to figure out how she should put something.

Then she said something that truthfully kind of freaked me out.

"Dakota, I . . . I like you."

I jolted, shooting her a questioning glance. Her face was sort of pink-ish, and she was trembling.

I felt a shiver run down my spine.

Uh, wow. What was I supposed to say? Usually, I could tell when girls liked me- they would ask me to dance at school dances, sit with me and some of the other guys at lunch . . . occasionally they would even invite me over. But none of them . . . none of them came right out and said, "I like you."

Unless she didn't mean it that way. I had to make sure.

"Uh, I like you, too. You're a good friend." I tried to appear oblivious, shooting her a grin.

"No, I mean I _liiiiiike _you."

Oh, gods.

"OK . . ." I really was practically speechless. I mean, I could have an empousa interrogating me at the brink of death and have some witty comeback, but a girl says she likes me . . . blank-out.

"So, uh . . . do you want to go out with me?"

Now this? Whoa!

"Well, um . . . Annette, see . . ." I dared to look up. Her eyes were big and wide and scared, like a frightened deer. "You're a good friend, but I'd appreciate it if we weren't . . . a couple."

"Oh. OK." For a moment she looked a bit downcast, then she brightened. "That's fine. I'm ready when you are." She flashed me the weird smile again and flounced off the balcony.

I watched until she slid the door shut again and waved, then sighed and ran my hands through my hair.

Maybe I hadn't been ready for this quest.

Alyssa was gone, now Annette had a crush on me, and some random shady-looking guy appeared on the balcony.

This day sucked.

**Haha, soooo? Who do you think the random guy was? (Pretty obvious . . .) Should Dakota take him up on his offer? :P Leave a review, I'd appreciate it! :D**

**Dakota: REVIEW! **

**Annette: =sighs dramatically and stares at Dakota= **

**Caleb: What's going on with Annette?**

**Me: You don't want to know . . .**


	15. I Take an Unexpected Trip Downstairs

**SOOOOOOOOO sorry this took so long. I had a slight case of writer's block, and you wouldn't believe how many projects we've had for school. :P Plus my mom grounded me and took away my laptop. : ( But now I'm not grounded, so I should be able to update more soon . . . **

**Disclaimer: PERCY jackson IS not MY book SERIES. That was weird . . . **

Chapter Fifteen: I Take an Unexpected Trip Downstairs

Alyssa was in a dungeon. It looked cold, dark, and it reeked of death.

She was in the Underworld. I could just tell.

She was slumped against the wall, obviously unconscious. Her face was pale and grimy, her usually wavy red hair stringy and dirty. Her clothes looked even worse than they did after the past three days, which is saying something. She looked deathly weak.

I swallowed and tried to move forward. But again, I was frozen. Just like an audience watching this . . . nasty sight. It felt so wrong seeing Alyssa like that . . . she was my best friend. She had never shown any weaknesses around me . . .

That was it. I had to help her.

Even if I had to take Weird-Random-Dude-On-The-Porch's offer.

* * *

The next day at dusk, I decided to sneak out of the hotel room and head towards the alley, hopefully without Annette or Caleb noticing.

I pulled my sweatshirt over my head and left the balcony, walking towards the door. Caleb was watching TV in the living room, and Annette was taking a nap. If I could just quietly, carefully pull it the door open, without either of them noticing . . .

I tried to look casual as I reached for the doorknob, but a slurred voice made me freeze.

"Where you going?"

Slowly, I turned to towards the bed. Annette, looking tired, was staring at me sleepily. But there was still suspicion in her eyes.

"I was-" I started.

"What? Who's going anywhere?" Caleb bounded out of the living room and stood in the doorway. He narrowed his eyes at me. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I was going for a walk," I ad-libbed. A pang of guilt hit my chest as I lied smoothly to my friends. "Maybe pick up some snacks."

Caleb still looked suspicious, but he tossed Wind's key chain at me. "Be careful," he warned.

"Yeah." I swallowed. _That's smart, Dakota,_ I cursed myself inwardly. _Forget to bring your weapon to the Underworld._ "I'll be back-"

"In an hour. Right?" Caleb's eyes were pleading. He looked really, genuinely concerned. Guilt descended like a boulder in the pit of my stomach.

"Yup," I replied, wondering if I would ever see them again after this. I stuffed Ventus in the pocket of my jeans and opened the door. The last thing I saw before I closed it behind me was Annette, giving me a sheepish wave and a lopsided grin.

* * *

As I strolled down the street towards the alley, giving an apprehensive glance over my shoulder every now and then (It turns into a habit when you're a half-blood), I began to get lost in my thoughts.

My hand clenched around Ventus unconsciously as I thought of leaving my friends behind to find Alyssa in the Underworld. Could this guy really help me? I hoped so. I wanted to get Alyssa back . . . a lot. You tend to feel that way about a best friend.

Speaking of friends and companions, I thought of Caleb. He probably wouldn't be my friend anymore after this. He'd obviously trusted me enough to even let me leave the room. But he'd acted like he hadn't even cared that the Fury had gotten Alyssa.

_It should have been me, slightly_I thought bitterly.

Then Annette. Saying she liked me more than as a friend.

Well, OK. how are you supposed to react to that? Uh, yeah. Thanks for sharing. Could've done well without that for a while . . .

I could never like Annette like that. Never.

The sky was growing dark above me. _He said dusk, _I thought, and I accelerated from casual stroll to brisk walk.

When I made it to the alley, I took a quick glance over my shoulder and ducked inside. It looked the same as it had the day before, only darker. And a bit more creepy.

I stood by the chain-link fence and gazed up at the sky. I had a perfect view of where the Fury had snatched Alyssa away. Her terrified shriek echoed in my ears. My hand squeezed Ventus as I balled my fists at my sides.

"You came."

Startled, I whirled around. I'd been on edge already, and a voice out of nowhere didn't help. I found myself pointing the tip of Wind at some guy's throat- the guy from the porch the day before.

His eyes were wide. "Whoa, man," he said, raising his palms as if surrendering. "Put that up." He seemed a bit nervous, slightly uncertain. Maybe it was just because I had a sword inches away from his face.

Regaining my composure, I lowered Ventus. "Sorry, you kind of snuck up on me."

A faint grin spread on his face and he shrugged. "I get that a lot."

He was wearing the same thing he had yesterday, like he was some homeless dude. He looked just as shady. When he shrugged, I saw a black sword sheathed at his belt.

Why did he have a sword? Was he going to attack me?

I was getting paranoid. He probably has one for the same reason you do, I told myself. But I was getting nervous. Maybe I shouldn't have left Caleb and Annette after all . . .

For Alyssa. For Alyssa, I reminded myself, swallowing.

"You have a sword," I blurted, narrowing my eyes at it warily.

"Well, yeah," he said, giving me a "Duh" look. "Powerful half-bloods tend to need them at all times."

I looked at Ventus clenched in my fist. "I guess."

Awkward silence rested between us. He broke it.

"So . . . to the Underworld?"

I looked up. "Yeah." _To Alyssa. _

He began to approach me. "So . . . son of Zeus?"

"Yeah." Pride pierced my chest, causing me to momentarily forget about my fear. I narrowed my eyes at him. "You?"

"Hades. Name's Nico." He grinned half-heartedly- the same grin Chiron had when he was hiding my parentage.

I frowned. Hades . . .

No way. I got it now.

I backed up a couple steps. "Hades wants me to come to the Underworld," I said slowly, putting it all together. "So . . . he sent you to get me. You're not going to help me save Alyssa. You're taking me to your dad! It was a trap. You lied!"

"What? No!"

Anger boiled up in my chest. This . . . this _jerk _lures me here with promise of saving my friend, only to capture me and take me to his father?

That wasn't going to happen. At least, not if it was up to me.

With an angry yell, I slashed Ventus at him. Good thing I didn't put it up, huh?

Nico (if that was his name) leaped back, dodging with ease. But his eyes were wide. "Look, I didn't-"

I didn't care about what he was going to say. It was probably just going to be another lie. I thrust Ventus forward at his chest. He narrowly dodged.  
At that moment, his eyes began to burn with rage. "Think I'm a liar?" he grumbled. In a blur, he unsheathed the pitch-black blade and lunged at me. This time, he wasn't aiming for the wall.

Automatically I raised my sword to parry. Nico's blade clanged with mine, and he pressed down so hard my knees turned to jelly with the effort of standing up. It felt like just because the swords were in contact, my strength was sapping. I sank lower to the concrete, wincing.

Nico didn't seem to be using force at all. It was just his sword. An almost hungry light gleamed in his eyes. They were black, too- scary black.

If I was going to fight him, it would have to be hand-to-hand combat. His sword was drinking in all my power.

With a grunt, I rolled away from the strike, tumbling onto the ground. I scrambled back to my feet, barely having time to duck Nico's horizontal slash at my head.

I whirled around and swung Wind in an arc over my head. It caught a gleam of vanishing sunlight, which my ADHD thought looked awesome.

Nico quickly parried, but I was ready. He jolted when I faked a jab at his ribs, sword automatically rising to block my "strike". That's when I attempted the disarming maneuver.

Surprisingly, it actually worked.

Nico's nightmare-black sword went clattering off towards the street. For a moment he stared at me in utter awe and disbelief before diving at me.

My senses heightened momentarily, becoming more sharp and acute. I sensed the wall of the alleyway was behind me- maybe a couple yards. Nico's objective was probably to ram me into it, knock the sword out of my hands, and maybe give me a black eye with a hey-maker. My heart was pounding in my ears.

As he lunged at me, I raised my sword to slash. But my arms suddenly felt heavy, my legs weak. My knees buckled, and he rammed into me.

I thought he was trying to to pin me against the wall and prove my theory right, but then I realized we hadn't hit it. And that I was cold and numb and I couldn't breathe. And it was dark, really dark. Like I-can't-see-my-hand-two-inches-in-front-of-my-face dark. Icy wind bit my skin and made my eyes water. I squeezed them shut, but it made no difference.

Then out of nowhere, air reentered my lungs. I could feel Nico behind me again, hands clamped on my shoulders. I stumbled, but he caught me and pulled me back. I opened my eyes, feeling dizzy, and swung a wild fist at where I thought he was. He grabbed my wrist and knocked it away.

It was still dark, and the air was so humid my vision swam. I tried to punch him again, but I was so exhausted . . . I sunk to the ground and went out cold. My last thought was, _Liar . . ._

* * *

Even in my dream, I felt feverish. I staggered forward a bit, dazed, blinking rapidly to clear my vision. It was sunny and warm, and I could hear laughter.

Girls' laughter.

I wiped my eyes and looked around.

I was standing at camp. In the sword arena. In front of me, giggling carelessly and having a mild sword battle, were two teenage girls.

When I looked closer, I recognized them as Charlie, Dionysus's daughter, and Sierra, the soulful girl who led the Apollo sing-a-longs. They looked like they were having a good time, just playing around with their swords.

Charlie looked much more carefree, not uptight like she'd been when she'd given me my tour. Sierra, well, she was smiling, but she was always smiling, so . . . yeah.

They laughed at each other's flawed technique- Charlie's mistake of an attack, Sierra's narrow block. Finally Charlie twirled her sword around Sierra's and sent it skittering out of the arena. She placed the tip of her sword at Sierra's throat playfully.

"I win!"

Sierra laughed. "I'll win next time." She jogged off, retrieved her sword, and the girls began to stroll out of the arena. I watched them pass, snickering and chatting excitedly about this week's upcoming Capture the Flag game.

Finding I could move instead of just watch, I followed them as they headed towards the mess hall. It was probably around lunchtime. Was this a replay of something important, was this happening right now? Thoughts entered my head, swirled around, and left as new questions came in. And I couldn't answer any of them.

Suddenly Sierra froze and clamped her hand on Charlie's shoulder.

"Hey, what's that?"

"What?" Charlie asked, still smiling.

"Look." Sierra pointed with her sword towards the top of Half-Blood Hill. Two slim figures were silhouetted against the light afternoon sky.

"Enemies?" Charlie was immediately serious, her hands reaching for the hilt of her sword from where she had sheathed it at her belt. "Let's confront them." She took out her sword and began creeping silently up the hill.

"Wait!" Sierra spun her friend around. "Should we get Chiron?"

"If they're really enemies, they'll attack!" Charlie snarled.

"But there's only two of them . . ." Sierra pointed out.

"So what?" Charlie turned away and resumed her ascent. Reluctantly it seemed, Sierra unsheathed her sword and followed.

They reached the top of the hill and crouched low to the ground, like camouflaged snipers, watching the figures draw nearer to the hill. When they were at the peak, standing right by Thalia's pine, they lunged in front of the invaders.

"Whoa!"

"Hey!"

Sierra and Charlie froze in their battle stances, staring at the girls before them.

One was strawberry blonde, with a dash of freckles, a suntan, and emerald green eyes. Her pack was slung over one shoulder, she was covered with scrapes and dirt, and one hand was clenched tightly around a necklace with a key hanging off it. Her mouth was open in a little O of shock and surprise, but also relief.

The other girl was taller, skinnier, and a lot paler. Her hair was blood-red, her eyes a dark indigo. Her jeans were torn on both knees and her black sweatshirt was a couple sizes too big for her. There was a long cut over her left eyebrow. Despite her skinny build, her jaw was set and she stood protectively in front of the other girl, wicked double-edged blade drawn.

Charlie and Sierra stared at them, eyes wide and seemingly in awe.

They were the girls from my previous dreams. And they were at camp.

"You're back," Charlie whispered, her voice breaking. "But now, he's gone."

The dream dissolved into dust, crumbling before my eyes and then rebuilding into a new image- Caleb, pacing around the hotel room anxiously. He cast an angry glance at the clock- it read 7:00. An hour from when I was supposed to have returned, I remembered guiltily.

"Where is he?" he grumbled.

"He left."

Caleb's eyes left the clock and drifted across the room to where Annette had left the living room and come to stand by the bed behind him. Her eyes were watery and her cheeks were tearstained.

"He abandoned us to save Alyssa."

Caleb's eyes narrowed in anger, and his shoulders sagged. In silent fury, he whirled around and snagged his jacket off the bed. He began to pull it on, eyes cold. After zipping it up, he threw Annette's sweatshirt at her.

She let it hit her before pulling it slowly over her head. "Where are we going?" she asked quietly.

Caleb snatched Hermes' credit card off the bedside table. "To find Dakota," he snapped. "To find the apple."

**So? Was this good enough to make up for the long wait? And I'm sorry I reviewed this. I had to tell you guys! :P So, uh . . . yeah. Until next time . . . **


	16. Battle Spirits Dislike Me

**Hey guys, I've decided to update again over the weekend, cause it's nasty outside here . . . Here meaning **********. HAHA! Gotcha! Did you honestly think I would tell you where I lived? I'm a freakin half-blood! :P**

**Disclaimer: I bet you're all really surprised to hear this, but PJO is actually not owned by me. I know, right, wow!**

Chapter Sixteen: Battle Spirits Dislike Me 

My vision was blurry. I couldn't see anything, just random streaks of gray that were seemingly moving before my eyes. My whole body was numb. I tried to move my legs, but only ended up twitching my right foot. I blinked slowly, as if in a dream. Wait- had I even waken up yet?

Confused, I blinked again. The haze of gray began to clear, but I was still feeling dazed and groggy. I struggled to sit up, but I could barely move my head. My right index finger twitched.

I thought maybe I couldn't move because I was in pain or something, but then I realized I _wasn't in pain. _I was just . . . tired. Completely exhausted.

My feet tingled inside my sneakers, making my toes curl as feeling shot back through my legs and into the rest of my body. I found myself capable of movement again, and I managed to sit up, stifle a yawn, and try to take in my surroundings.

Everything was either black or gray or a ghastly silverish color, like . . . ghostly. When I looked up, I saw craggy rocks hanging from the ceiling. The ground was black, too, like volcanic sand, except more deathly. Everything reeked of death and sadness and fear.

I was in the Underworld.

How had I gotten here?

I racked my brain to remember, but, finding nothing, I ended up struggling to stand.

"It's funny, you know?"

The voice made me jolt. Whirling around on shaking legs, I saw Nico sitting on the black sand with his back to me. He fit right in with all this other dark stuff here, even though he was alive. I could barely make out his onyx-colored blade against the gritty sand.

Oh, now I remember.

"What's funny?" I said. My voice was hoarse, so I sounded like some nine-year-old with a sore throat.

"How you responded to me telling you a lie." He turned to face me. His black eyes were cold and dark and sad. Like the rest of this place.

"How's that funny?"

"I reacted the same way when Percy Jackson lied to me." He sighed. "I just lashed out at him."

"Well, now look where you took me," I snapped, anger running a hot and cold river through my veins. "You got what you wanted."

Nico still didn't look at me. "Now, I have to take you to my father. He wants to talk to you."

So Annette had been right. Hades wanted to talk to me, probably about something important. Now I knew he didn't want to kill me. Great.

I gazed around at the black, death-y environment. It made me shudder looking at it all again. "How'd you get me here?"

"Same way I found you. Shadow travel." He said it like it was something obvious.

"Shadow travel?"

"Creatures of the Underworld can use darkness as a gateway. They can travel just about anywhere through the shadows."

I had to admit, that seemed pretty cool. "So the whole running into the wall thing-"

"I ran _through _the wall," he corrected, shooting me a faint smile.

I suppressed a grin, instead only copying his expression. Silence rested between us. I realized Nico really wasn't all that bad . . . if he hadn't kidnapped me, we might've become friends.

"All right, let's go." Nico stood easily, sneakers scuffing black sand around.

"Where?" I asked.

"To my dad's palace." He sighed again, the sorrow reentering his gaze. He held out his hand.

Cautiously I took it, only to gasp as we whisked into the darkness again.

* * *

We reappeared in a field.

It had black grass, no surprise there. But it was completely squashed, like a herd of elephants had stampeded across the field over and over again. Well, dead elephants. But still.

The place was packed, like the stands of the Superbowl multiplied by ten. But Nico just steered me through the crowd of black-robed people. Some would try and whisper things to me, like secrets, but they just sounded like a rustle in bushes, a faint breeze carrying a voice that was so quiet no one could hear it.

The sky was dark gray, like a rainy day. In the distance, a pitch-black castle loomed ominously at Nico and I.

Hades's palace.

The Lord of the Dead himself was right up there.

Fear began to rattle around in my chest. I had to get out of here. I began to devise a plan.

"So, uh, Nico, this is the Fields of Asphodel, right?" I asked casually, glancing carefully around at all the whispering spirits. You couldn't see their eyes from under their hoods. They looked like non-evil dementors from the Harry Potter movies- the flowing black robes, dark, long hoods over their faces- minus the gleaming red eyes and utter creepiness. The dead didn't really scare me, just kind of made me sad. Someday, I might be here, trampling the black grass even worse than it already was.

"Yeah." Nico's voice startled me back into reality. He steered me over around to his left as a crowd of dead spirits began to gather on that side of him. One hand was gripped firmly on my shoulder. The other apprehensively moved towards his sword, which he'd stuck in his belt again.

It took me a bit to notice that these spirits looked different from the rest. Instead of hooded figures whispering sadly, they were snarling anxiously, like we were good food. They had smashed in faces, like the grass here, and a murderous glint in their eyes. Their arms were scrawny and bony, but gleaming claws immediately took that image away. They had small bat wings and short legs.

"What are those?" I whispered to Nico.

He swore in Ancient Greek. "Keres. Battle spirits." He drew his sword and pointed it at them. "Leave, now! You've seen me before, you know who I am!"

"True," one snarled, stepping forward. "But we don't know who _he _is." It waved a nasty claw in my direction. "We only want to get rid of him. We'll let you pass, Son of Hades."

"He's with me." Nico's other hand left my shoulder to grip his sword with both hands. He was expecting a fight.

"He's a child of Zeus!" one Kere hissed from behind its leader. "I can sense it!"

"We don't welcome live children of other gods here," the lead Kere growled at me. Its claws curled in anticipation, and it lunged into the air, trying to get over Nico to me.

Nico raised his sword and met it in midair, vaporizing it. As the sword drank in its strength, the air became a bit more chilly.

The rest of the Keres leaped at Nico too, all trying to get around him to me. He slashed his sword in an arc, destroying some on his left. But when he whirled to his right, they all attacked again, as one persistent force.

_Now. _

Though I did feel kind of bad afterwards, I knew what I had to do.

As Nico fought, I backed away until I was sure he wouldn't be able to notice me. Then I turned and vanished into the crowd of spirits, rushing past them and catching their sorrowful whispers in my ears.

**Me: So, what did you think about that? I had lots of fun writing this, so I hope you enjoyed reading it! Remember, the little review button highly enjoys your reviews! :P Until next time, Mending the Sky out! **

**Dakota: Do I get to save Alyssa? **

**Me: We'll see. =cackles= yay, suspense!**


	17. I Screw Up a Garden

**Me: Hey, guys, I'm back! **

**Dakota: Oh, joy. You do realize you made me run away from the person who tried to save my life? **

**Me: ...**

**Oh, and quick author's note. I saw a reviewer called 'pwned' told me Dakota was a Gary-Stu. Could you enlighten me into how? :P **

**Disclaimer: PJO not mine. PJO Rick Riordan's. **

Chapter Seventeen: I Screw Up a Garden

The dead seemed to part before me as I sprinted across the Fields of Asphodel, back towards where Nico and I had come from. Maybe they were parting because I was living. Or maybe because I was weird. Dunno. Your choice.

I cast a glance over my shoulder. No sign of Nico.

I felt kind of bad. Nico hadn't been terrible, but still. Kidnapping a kid to talk with his lovely Lord of the Dead father isn't something that scores real high on my Friend Standards list.

But I'd just left him alone to finish off, like, a dozen Keres. And they'd looked really bloodthirsty and nasty.

Wincing, I just kept on running. If I could leave my friends behind, alone, in Chicago, then I could certainly leave Nico behind in the Underworld. It was his home turf, right? He shouldn't have too much trouble.

My sneakers dug into the volcanic sand as I slid to a stop. I bent over, panting, to catch my breath.

Now that Nico's gone, you're completely lost, a little voice said in my brain. You have no idea where you are.

I groaned. Why didn't I think of that?

Swallowing hard, I looked around again. Same place where I'd awakened. I sighed. Back at the beginning.

I began to trudge along the dark beach, shoes kicking up sand when I scuffed my heels in it. I shoved my hands in my pockets. My right hand closed around a familiar key chain.

Ventus! It was in my pocket! I wasn't completely defenseless!

Grinning, I kept walking down the grim beach. "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson shot into my head.

Sometime later, my surroundings began to change from just black, black, and black to crystals- rubies, diamonds, emeralds. Silvery flowers gleamed faintly in rows, like moonlight. Not ghostly like the rest of the Underworld. It was . . . beautiful.

I was in a garden, and it was dark, but I could see a dim outline from the flowers' light. Trees arched over me like a sort of gate as I approached. Fruit hung crisply from their branches, their sweet smell begging me to take one and bite down into it.

Persephone's garden.

I stood, mesmerized, in the center of it. The air was cool and moist, and there was actually springtime grass on the ground. It was green and lush, like the trees and the fruits . . .

There were apples on the trees. And not just red apples.

The apples were gold.

One of them had to be Eris's. My heart began to pound.

I approached one of the trees and stuck my sneaker in between two branches. With my hands I gripped those branches and pulled myself up. I began to climb up the tree, towards the apples at the top.

The tree's leaves tickled my face teasingly as I carefully stepped onto a heavy branch. I tested its strength by bouncing once. Seeing it was fine, I reached up and plucked one golden apple from the tree.

Its golden skin had no wrinkles, nothing at all. It looked so tantalizingly good. I wanted to eat it so much, but I knew if I did I would never be able to leave. No matter if Eris's apple was here or not.

Eris's quote wasn't on that one, so I pulled another one. And another. My will was beginning to crumble. I know it sounds stupid, but you try going into Persephone's garden and pulling apples off one of the trees, knowing you can't eat anything.

I took a break, sitting in a V-shaped branch. My stomach rumbled. I had nothing to eat.

Add being hungry to the list above. Is it more difficult now?

Miserable, I leaned my head against the branch and sighed.

"It's not here."

A woman's voice, soft as a springtime breeze, rang in my ears. Slowly, I sat up. I was perfectly camouflaged at the top of the tree- the leaves shielded me completely from the view of a person looking up.

I peered through a gap in the branches, trying to see who was in the garden with me.

A woman was looking right up at my tree.

I jolted back and froze, hoping she hadn't heard the leaves rustle. My pulse increased. I didn't dare move.

"Why are you in my garden?"

Her voice again, more stern.

I leaned forward ever so slightly. Now she was circling around from the side of the tree to the front. I couldn't climb down anywhere without her either hearing me or seeing me. I was stuck.

Slowly, I leaned forward again to get a better look at her.

She was graceful and elegant. Her dress was multicolored like wildflowers. She had flowing chestnut hair and tan skin that made her brilliant eyes stand out. She had one hand placed firmly on her hip and she glanced up at the tree- an expression I'd seen on my mother many times.

Persephone.

Why was she down here? According to my book, she was up with Demeter during spring and summer and in the Underworld with Hades during winter and autumn.

"I don't take it lightly when people invade my garden while I'm away, and mess with my plants."

I gulped inaudibly. If I had irritated a goddess, I was busted. My hands were clenching the branches so hard my knuckles were white.

"If you don't come down from the tree right now, I will take you to Hades myself. He's already been expecting you. My stepson screwed up letting you get away, Dakota."

I sighed. The leaves rustled around me as I lowered myself down onto the thick branch, then the next, and then I was back on the ground, pressed against the tree.

Persephone really was beautiful. Anyone can see why Hades wanted to be her husband. But she certainly didn't look happy right now, being down here any other time than when she was supposed to be. She shot me a glare. "Why were you plucking apples off my tree?" she demanded, a faint pout settling on her lips. "It takes a lot of work planting those."

"Uh . . . sorry," was all I could manage.

"Never mind." She waved her hand dismissively. "Lord Hades has been wishing to speak with you. I don't know why he couldn't have just asked instead of sending that Kindly One . . . and Nico," she added distastefully. "The spawn of him and that mortal . . . stupid child." She scowled, then looked back at me. "I'm surprised you managed to get away from him. Though, with his intelligence, it must have been easy . . ."

I didn't say anything. She seemed to be in a bad mood already, so I figured I should just stay quiet. But plenty of smart-mouth comments had been running through my head just then.

"I heard Hades took your friend when the Fury came."

I looked up.

"Do you . . ."

"She's probably in his dungeon. Or his throne room. Occasionally he likes to irritate people he's trapped . . . although he calls it 'keeping them company'." Persephone rolled her eyes. Then she looked at me. "Don't tell him I told you. I am his wife, but . . ."

I nodded. "I understand."

Persephone nodded back, and, as she began to glow, said, "Good luck, Dakota. You'll need it."

I averted my eyes, and then she was gone, leaving only the smell of blooming blossoms in her wake.

**I'm sorry that was short. But I'll try and get another chapter up soon, so . . . yeah. Expect an update sometime later this weekend, maybe? :P **

**Oh, and make sure to vote on my poll! :D it's up on my profile!**

**Until then . . . Mending the Sky OUT! =does peace sign=**


	18. Hades Gives Me a Pep Talk

**Hey, sorry this was late . . . I had a case of writer's block and I'm struggling to get rid of it as I'm writing, so . . . I'm going with the flow again. But the last chapter I did this with was good, right? =crickets= Oh, gee. Thanks for the positive encouragement. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Crap. Now how can I find a way to . . . =exits stage left= **

Chapter Seventeen: Hades Gives Me a Pep Talk 

Hades' palace was very creepy looking. Like, a more sinister Hogwarts. Wait, no . . . I can't really describe it well.

Hmm . . . OK. Picture a black sky. Got that? OK. Now, picture a light coat of mist over the sky. So, you know it's dark and you can't see anything. Now, (here's the tough part . . .) picture an . . . onyx-encrusted gate, in front of a long spiraling black path. Where does the path lead to?

A giant, pitch-black, castle, looming out of the mist. You could swear it wasn't there a second ago, but now it is. It would look like it'd escaped from a horror movie, except there's no organ playing and lightning flashing eerily around it.

My mouth had dropped open at the sight of the eerie palace. This was Nico's house? My ADHD, off track as usual, wondered how it would feel for him to invite a friend over. "Where do you live?" "Oh, in a giant creepy tower in the depths of Hades. With, um, Hades himself."

I pushed lightly on the gate. It swung open easily, except for the creak. I felt like a I was stepping into one of those scary movie scenes, where the 'Jaws' music starts playing and your heart starts being a million miles an hour. Mine was.

The path wasn't as worn as the path to the Fields of Asphodel was. I guessed not many people were crazy enough to come to Hades's house, even if they were dead. Which I probably would be, soon . . .

As expected, there were guards at the door. They were skeletal, like the ones from my dreams, but these guards were wearing camouflage pants and holding AK-47s. Their bony faces grinned at me as I approached them. They must have been expecting me, because when I arrived at the door, they stepped to the side and let the cold stone doors open before me.

Then I was facing a long black hallway. There wasn't really much to see . . . it was really just a hallway, completely black and shades of black. Torches lit the way with creepy blue light and my footsteps echoed around the room as I walked. I was nervous now, if I hadn't been before. My mouth was dry.

Unconsciously I took out Ventus when I reached the end of the hall. Using one hand to grip the hilt tightly, I used the other to shove the door open.

As I swung around in a fighting stance, I felt like a cop on one of those police shows. You know, like when they bust down someone's door and swoop into the room with their gun drawn . . . yeah.

Now a flight of stairs, spiraling upward, lay before me. I sighed heavily. _If it's going to take this long to get to Hades willingly, I probably should've just stayed with Nico,_ I thought bitterly.

Then I thought of Alyssa- scared, hurt, weak, and all those other words that no one should use to describe her.

And I began to run up the steps, taking them two at a time.

* * *

Alyssa blearily opened her eyes. The throne of Hades was beside her, and in it perched the Lord of the Dead himself. He was seemingly patient as he waited. But she knew Dakota was coming, and then Hades wouldn't waste any time in trying to hurt him.

She struggled to focus her exhausted brain.

_When Dakota runs in that door, _she told herself,_ you tell him to go back. _

Consciousness began to give up on her, but she forced herself to stay upright in her slump against the wall. She had to. To save Dakota.

* * *

The last door was the one from the dream. I could tell.

Except, like the dream before, there were no guards, so even my truckload of doubts didn't stop me from running right into them, shoving them open, and standing in the threshhold panting for breath.

Within the few seconds I stood there, I took in the whole room: the ghastly throne of bones, empty. Then- off in the right corner- a girl. With grimy clothes, a pale face, and fiery, stringy red hair. Her chest was heaving as she gasped and she was coated in cold sweat.

"Alyssa," I mouthed, because I couldn't speak. I began to run towards her.

Her hand stretched out, and her shrill voice echoed around the room. "No! Go back!"

I froze, frowning, only to realize I'd screwed up and fallen into the trap. As I whirled around, Ventus drawn, the doors were already closing.

My dream. The last segment had come true.

A low cackle rumbled in my ears. I spun around again towards the throne.

Now it was occupied.

I can't describe the Lord of the Dead in one word. He matched the rest of this place, of course- black robe, darkness practically radiating from him. Just the sight of him- and his plain gorgeous eyes of pure black despair (note the sarcasm) - sent shivers up my spine. My limbs went heavy and I could think of nothing better to do then just stand there, mouth dropped, in front of Hades.

"Dakota Swift." His voice was cold, captivating. I should be listening closely to everything he says, I thought.

My mind was focusing intensely on Hades. He was sitting; looking intrigued but relaxed, in the throne. He looked a bit too casual for me. My fingers curled unconsciously around Ventus's handle, gripping it like a vice in my sweaty hand.

"Have you been told about fatal flaws?" Hades asked.

I didn't say anything. His voice echoed around in my head. In the back of my mind I thought of Alyssa. She was here. I was here. Maybe, I could escape? Maybe? No? it all depended on what Hades wanted. He ruled here.

_He's getting to you,_ I told myself. _Focus on getting out of here, in one piece, and saving Alyssa. _

"No?" Hades looked genuinely surprised, but it looked a bit too genuine to be real. If that makes sense. "Well, let me explain."

"Children of Poseidon, they are usually too loyal to friends," the Lord of the Dead drawled. "Children of Zeus" –My heart leaped- "are usually too headstrong. They think they can do everything themselves."

Why he had chosen this specific topic to talk about, I didn't know. But he was making me a bit mad. "What about you?" I asked.

"Hmm?" He pretended he didn't hear me. I could tell. It was in the same tone your mom says, "What?" in when you ask if you can borrow a large amount of money.

"What are your children's flaws?" I repeated quietly, not daring to look up at him. I kept my face turned downwards at my sneakers, but my eyes were focused on Alyssa, slumped against the corner. She was trembling now, her eyes desperate.

Hades was staring at me. It wasn't a glare, more like a steely gaze. "I was told," he said, "that my children hold grudges."

I said nothing. There was really nothing to say . . . and I was trying to find a way to get out with Alyssa. My pulse throbbed.

"Well, Dakota." Now his voice was stern. "I called you down here to warn you of what's to come."

My head snapped up involuntarily. Hades seemed a bit taken aback as I glared at him. "Like everyone else has been telling me," I snapped.

Hades's eyes narrowed. "Do not disrespect me, child." His hands unclenched around the armrests of his chair (which I absentmindedly wondered if they were made, ironically, of arm bones) as he leaned back.

"That annoying Apollo was correct. You should count your blessings. Be glad I haven't blasted you back up to your father. Yet." His voice was icy and sent chills up my spine. "Watch carefully. You will meet them next summer, when the approaching danger is nearly upon us. Oh, and this quest? She really didn't need your help," he scoffed the last sentence.

I was confused, if I hadn't been earlier. Which I had, so now I was extremely confused.

This was what Nico had kidnapped me for? To talk with his slightly-annoying dad?

"Your birthday is July 7, correct? You just turned twelve?"

I nodded once. My mouth had gone dry hearing Alyssa gasping painfully in the corner. I had to at least get her to safety.

"You'll be thirteen next year, then. Very special age." Hades sighed lazily, then said, "Well, this has been . . . pleasant. Off you go now."

He waved his hand, and I plunged downward, through the floor, until I was just falling through black.

I flipped and twisted and turned, but I couldn't see any light. None at all. When I stopped flailing I realized that this wasn't scary falling. It was peaceful, like a dream. It was more like floating. So I closed my eyes, and floated.

Until the breath was ripped from my lungs and I was on my back on cold, hard concrete, pain flashing through my body.

**Yeah, I know it wasn't that great . . . :P I'm sorry. Hopefully you liked it though, even if it was definitely not my favorite . . . Anyway, I'll try and update again soon. So, uh . . . bye? **


	19. I Have an Epic Plan

**Hey, guys, what's up? I've decided to update again! Only recent news regarding this story is that it'll probably be closing up in a few chapters. :( But on the bright side, there's definitely gonna be a sequel! :D **

**And yaaaay, I have over 100 reviews! :D **

**Disclaimer: Man. I'm running out of disclaimers. Uh . . . I don't own PJO. Sorry for non-creativity . . .**

Chapter Nineteen: I Have an Epic Plan

For a moment I lay, dazed, on the ground, shuddering. My brain had gone numb as I focused mainly on slowing down my pounding heart. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out . . .

Once I was remotely calmed, my mind went into hyperdrive.

Where was I? My eyes shot open and immediately squinted as a bright, clear blue sky met them. Blinking rapidly to adjust to the sunlight, I used my slightly unsteady arms to push myself into a sitting position.

I was in an alleyway, a brief, dark respite from a bustling city outside the narrow path. From what I could see, people were walking briskly and hurriedly, the noises of chattering and footsteps and other city noises humming around away from the secluded alley. Wherever this particular city was, it reminded me of all the other busy cities I'd been to: the people rushing around impatiently with no time to think.

I blinked, confused. This was where Hades had decided to drop me and Alyssa?

Alyssa.

"Alyssa?" I turned towards the spot where she was sprawled, pallid and shivering, beside me. Now that I could see her up close, I saw just how fragile she truly was.

Her freckles stood out against her pale skin. Her eyes were big and glazed over as she shuddered, over and over again, like she was cold even though it had to be eighty degrees. Her hair was scraggly and unkempt, the tangles tangling amongst themselves. She swallowed carefully, like her throat was so utterly parched it hurt, then broke off coughing.

"Alyssa?" I said again, more urgently as I crawled over to her. Alyssa tried to sit up, then fell back, choking. Inside my sweatshirt pocket, I could feel something other than Ventus. I reached in and found a baggy with some ambrosia squares. Shocked, but knowing what I had to do, I removed a square and carefully held the medicine out to Alyssa. Where it had come from, I didn't know. But I had to make use of it.

She raised one arm up, but she didn't seem to be able to grasp it. Jokingly I rolled my eyes. "Am I going to have to feed you, Alyssa?"

Cautiously, so as not to hurt her, I held the ambrosia in front of her mouth and let her nibble it for a little while in small bites that she could manage to swallow. After a few more nervous bites her breathing stabilized and she relaxed. I sat there watching her uncertainly, holding the half-eaten ambrosia square for a couple minutes before she opened her eyes.

She blinked and slightly drowsy brown eyes focused on me. "You came for me," she rasped.

I couldn't suppress a smirk. "Well, you know me. Can't resist a damsel in distress."

One arm reached up and punched my shoulder weakly. "But you just abandoned the quest for me . . ." she trailed off.

I grinned, standing up. "You OK?" I diverted the subject. I didn't want to start a guilt trip now.

"Y-yeah." Alyssa braced her arms and managed to sit up slowly, suppressing a wince. Just to annoy her, I held out my hand. I was a bit shocked when she grabbed it and let me help her up. She could walk, but she needed to lean on me a little.

Upon leaving the alley, my mouth dropped open in shock. "No way . . ." I said in awe.

Hades had transported us back to New York.

"Well, gee, that was nice," Alyssa grumbled.

"Yeah," I mumbled. "Listen, I thought about what Hades said to me, and I think I know just what's going on." I told her my suspicion and what I planned we should do.

"OK, so we need to go to the Empire State Building, and then-" Alyssa started after I finished, as we strolled across the street.

"No," I interrupted.

She stopped, her eyes burning into mine. "What?"

"You need to rest," I said firmly, resisting the urge to back up. Any other time, I would've instantly agreed to go at that moment, but she looked terrible. Her hair was a mess, she was so pale she looked like a ghost (And believe me, I now know what they look like), and she seemed to have lost a couple vital pounds. On top of that, she had no weapon. As far as I knew, her quiver of arrows and her bow were still back in that Chicago alleyway where Nico and I had left them.

"I say we check into a hotel for the night," I continued.

"One room with _you_? I don't think so."

I couldn't suppress a grin even as I raised my hands innocently."I promise I won't try anything."

Alyssa sighed; I could tell she didn't like being treated like a weakling. But I was right, and she knew it. So she obliged reluctantly as we walked to the nearest, cheapest motel.

Not having the Hermes credit card wasn't good, but I had twenty dollars from when I'd first left Caleb and Annette back in the Chicago hotel. It wasn't enough to get the best room there, but I guess the front desk lady took pity on two dirty, scraggly kids who looked like they hadn't bathed in days . . . which was true. She slipped us the room card to a simple three-room place that had a bedroom, a living room, and a bathroom. It probably cost a lot more than my measly twenty bucks, but I was grateful nonetheless.

The room certainly wasn't the Ritz-Carlton, but it was good enough for Alyssa and me to crash in for the night.

Once I collapsed on the living room couch and claimed it as my "bed", Alyssa said she was going to take a much-needed shower. I nodded lazily and said I'd go next. On the way to the bathroom, Alyssa paused and looked at me questioningly.

"Where are Caleb and Annette?"

Ooh. I winced inwardly as my suppressed guilt pierced my chest. "Chicago."

She didn't reply and continued on her way. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. I heard the water begin to run in the bathroom, and the door click shut.

Caleb and Annette probably hated me now. _And they should, _I thought guiltily. _You lied to them and betrayed them and . . . _I squeezed my eyes shut.

I had to contact them somehow. Even if they hated me, they had to know where I was, right? I rummaged through my pockets, hoping I had a random drachma along with the random baggy of ambrosia. All I had was Ventus's key chain and a gum wrapper. Cursing inwardly, I peered over the doorway. Alyssa's nasty t-shirt and jeans were tossed outside the door.

Feeling like an utter creeper, I knelt by her jeans and put my hand in one of the pockets. My hand closed over a large golden coin.

Blushing from my creepiness, I looked for a way to create any mist, as Chiron had instructed me if I ever needed to IM anyone.

_The shower. _

Without thinking, I thrust the door open, only to see Alyssa stepping out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her body. She shrieked, leaping back behind the shower door. "Why are you in here? Why didn't you knock?" she demanded shrilly.

In response, I asked, "Who gets out of the shower with a towel on?"

"I do!"

"Why?"

"Because I'm rooming with you!" After abruptly adjusting the towel, she went to shove me out of the bathroom.

"No, wait! Iris Message!" I protested, my sneakers slipping slightly on the wet tile as I held the drachma up to show her.

She retreated back to the shelter of the shower, frowning. Then she came back out, snatched her gross clothes, and went back in, slamming the blacked-out door stall to dress.

Then, "You got that drachma from my jeans, didn't you? You perv, you went through my clothes!"

"Well, I didn't have any, so-" I replied.

The towel landed on my head. I snorted with laughter, tossing it back to her before starting to scope out the bathroom for some mist. Luckily for me, I found some fogging up the mirror. I took a deep breath, and said what Chiron had told me to say. "O goddess, accept my offering!" Then I tossed the drachma at the mist, hoping I wouldn't epic fail and hit the mirror, because then . . . well.

But to my surprise, the mist thickened and swirled as if it were waiting. Taking another deep breath, I requested, "Uh . . . wherever Caleb and Annette are?" after realizing I had no idea where they might have gone after I'd left them.

For a moment I feared the message wasn't working, but suddenly Annette's face loomed in front of me. She was washing her hands or something; I could hear water running and her eyes were facing down. She seemed to be in a bathroom, you know, like one of those fast food bathrooms or a gas station.

"Annette!" I called.

She looked up, confused, until she spotted my image in the mist before her. Her eyes immediately brightened in surprise and delight. "Dakota?" she squealed. "Ohmigods! Dakota! Where are you? Are you OK?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," I stammered, a bit taken aback. My face reddened as Alyssa snorted from inside the shower.

"You scared me! I was crying! Caleb was sooooo mad, he said we were going to the Underworld, and-"

"No! Don't go to the Underworld," I interrupted. "We're in New York, and-"

Suddenly there was a knock on the bathroom door behind Annette's elated face. Caleb's irritated voice said, "Annette, hurry up, we gotta go!"

Annette's giddy grin widened even further, if that was possible. "Caleb!" Her eyes left my face briefly as she ran to the door, pushed it open, and grabbed an arm. She yanked a boy into the bathroom with her- Caleb. His shocked turquoise eyes were wide with anger until he noticed the Iris-Message, and he narrowed his eyes.

"Look! It's Dakota!" Annette giggled.

"So I see." Caleb frowned and crossed his arms.

The guilt blob in my stomach enlarged. I heard the shower door open behind me, but I just kept my eyes on Caleb's stony glare. "Well, uh . . . we're in-"

"Who is_ we_?" Caleb leaned forward. I felt Alyssa's presence appear at my left. Caleb's eyes widened in disbelief. "Is that Alyssa? You found her?"

"In the flesh," Alyssa muttered half-heartedly, waving with weak exuberance. "Hey, Caleb. Annette." She regarded the other girl with a slight nod, then shot me a look. I mouthed, "I'll explain later."

Annette's face had shaded a bit. Ignoring her, I repeated, "Um . . . Alyssa and I are in New York, after the friendly Lord of the Dead transported us there."

Caleb's eyebrows shot upwards. "Hades sent-"

I interrupted by telling him and Annette everything- the meeting with Hades, the Underworld, meeting and fighting Nico . . . and most importantly, my idea about what this quest was really about.

"Are you serious?" Annette asked when I was done, narrowing her eyes. "Why would she do that?"

"I dunno," I replied, trying to avoid eye contact. "But, uh . . ."

"We'll come to you," Caleb cut me off. His eyes were still hard, but it seemed more with a determined light now. "We'll see if we can get to your hotel sometime tomorrow. Where are you staying?"

I told him the place's name and our room number.

Caleb nodded. "Behave yourselves until then," he said, winking. I grinned half-heartily.

Then, averting his eyes to the floor, Caleb waved his hand through the image. As the mist began to fade, I heard Annette call, "Bye, Dakota!"

* * *

"So . . . after Megaera took me, Annette showed up?" Alyssa said, giving me her confused look.

"Yup." I nodded.

We were sitting on our room's couch. Ventus was on the nearby table. The curtains were halfway open, so that light streamed in over the carpet as the sun set.

"So, uh . . ." Alyssa bit her lip. I glanced over at her.

"Worried about sharing a room with me?"

"More like freaking out," she muttered. "Thank the gods we don't have to share a bed."

We both laughed nervously. Now that it was just Alyssa and me, I realized how much I missed Caleb and Annette . . . even though Annette was probably the most annoying girl I knew. It was so awkward now. I knew if it'd been Annette I'd saved, she would be gushing over how I was such a hero and she would never be able to repay me, but Alyssa was just sitting here unsure of what to say.

"Um . . . Dakota?" Alyssa turned towards me. Up until then we'd both been staring anxiously at the door, as though Caleb and Annette would barge in out of nowhere even though we'd just finished the IM.

"Yeah."

"Th-thank you."

Her voice broke.

I turned to face her, too. Her lip was quivering, and her eyes were liquid, like she was trying not to cry.

"Um . . . you're welcome," I said awkwardly. Then, not knowing what else to do, I averted my gaze back to the door. I tried to focus on anything but Alyssa's intense brown stare on me- I counted the tiles on the ceiling, the cracks in the wall, the little flecks on the tiles on the ceiling . . . anything.

Then I felt Alyssa's hand touch mine. Then, slowly, our fingers interlaced.

Why was she holding my hand? Was she doing it to annoy me? Was she scared? I wasn't sure, and I had nothing else to do but sit there with her.

"So now what do we do?" Alyssa asked quietly. "When do you think they'll get here?"

"Well, uh . . ." My voice was raspy, so I cleared my throat nervously. My face felt hot. "Now, we . . . we wait."

**Sorry for the sappy ending. I was bitten by the Romance Muse! O.O Wait till I go to school tomorrow. My friend will say that I'm growing up. :P **

**So, anyhoo. Leave me a review and I'll make Alyssa and Dakota kiss! (Guess he's not so smooth with the girls after all, huh?) **

**Lol. Not really. Well, actually . . . you know what, just review. Peace out, people! Mending the Sky**


	20. Alyssa Saves My Life

**Hey, guys, I'm updating. :D**

**Disclaimah: I don't own PJO. See, it was a little different . . . in gangsta language . . . :P**

Chapter Twenty: Alyssa Saves My Life

The next day went by slowly, inching along like a snail. I lounged on the couch basically all morning, watching the door, while Alyssa slept, with the door closed, in the bedroom.

Yawning, I stretched my tired limbs and stood up, shooting a casual glance at the clock. It read 11:30. No wonder I was starting to get hungry.

I sighed involuntarily as I slipped on my sneakers. After pocketing Ventus's key chain, just in case of a . . . _situation, _I started towards the door. Then I froze in mid-step.

Alyssa was still asleep. I couldn't just leave her in the room.

With another sigh, I tentatively knocked on the bedroom door. "Alyssa? It's . . . uh . . . lunchtime."

I proceeded to prepare myself to enter the room and wake her up, but as my hand closed on the doorknob, she called from inside, "OK. I'll be out in a little bit."

I was a bit taken aback. She'd been awake all this time? I'd thought she'd been sleeping all morning. I'd missed out on the opportunity to annoy her about the single room.

Then another more serious thought struck me. Maybe she'd been avoiding me?

After the awkward hand-holding incident the previous night (which for the record _she _started), Alyssa had stood and declared that she was going to bed. As she'd passed, I caught a glimpse of her red face.

It'd been her idea to hold my hand. Not mine. I hadn't been the one openly flirting with her with the Pity Card.

She opened the door, and I jolted. Even overnight, she'd seemed to improve physically. Color had returned to her face and the dark circles under her eyes had lightened after a good night's sleep.

She lifted a sullen brown gaze to me, looking like she was about to say something, then simply passed me and headed over to dig her shoes out from the spot under the couch where she'd placed them. I watched as she slipped them on and tied the laces tightly, then sat there averting her eyes from me and twiddling her thumbs nervously.

"Are you hungry?" I asked quietly.

"Very," she said. "I could go for some meat right now."

"That's what she said." I attempted to lighten the heavy air with some humor, grinning.

She managed to restrain her smile, but I saw the corner of her mouth quirk. Grinning, I comically extended my hand to her. "Come along, miss," I drawled. "We have the, er, seafood special planned for you downstairs in the VIP section of the diner."

That time Alyssa laughed, and as we left the room, I got the feeling that maybe she'd forgotten her attempt at flirting the night before.

The food was pretty good, I must say . . . having stolen a few packs of Doritos from the snack shelf and nabbing two bottles of soda before sneaking upstairs was our best bet. Caleb and Annette had the Hermes credit card, so hopefully they'd get to the hotel before someone found out that we'd taken food.

After we finished quietly munching on Doritos and casually sipping from Coke bottles, Alyssa retreated back into the bedroom and left me to sit on the couch alone again.

I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep until I was awakened by the familiar noise of the door unlocking to the key card. Alyssa had our room's key card. No one else but her.

Instinctively, while the door was being opened, I reached for Ventus, rolled off the couch, and had the sword pointed at whoever was at the door in no time flat.

Caleb's eyes crossed looking at the blade at his throat. He swallowed. "Uh, hi, Dakota."

"DAKOTA!" Annette, who was behind him, screeched and shoved past the son of Hecate, arms spread. She froze upon seeing Ventus, and watched as I pocketed the key chain before practically knocking me over with a bear hug.

The bedroom door opened, revealing a scowling Alyssa, whose face immediately brightened upon seeing familiar faces. "Caleb!" she exclaimed, rushing over to hug him.

While this Hugfest was going on, my mind was humming with thoughts of my plan. Did they remember it?

When Annette finally released me from her monstrous hug, I looked at Alyssa to avoid Caleb's laser gaze. "So, uh . . . " I averted my eyes to the floor when Alyssa looked back at me. "Are we . . . are we carrying out my plan?"

Annette's eyes were focused dead straight on my face. "Yeah. But I still don't quite get the point of sending you when you really weren't searching for anything."

Caleb shrugged. "Me either."

I fiddled with Ventus's key chain in my pocket. "Well, we still have to report to the gods, right? Would that be the right thing to do?"

Annette's eyes danced teasingly. "Why so quiet, Dakota? Where's all your confidence?" She hadn't even looked at Alyssa, hadn't greeted her. The action was mutual.

I bit my lip and shot a sideways glance at Alyssa, who was ignoring Annette. "Well, I guess it is, but I'm sorta nervous. You've all been to Olympus, right?"

All three of them nodded. "Yup."

"You've all seen Zeus?"

Alyssa dipped her head. "Lord Zeus is very straightforward."

"If you want, on the way there I could tell you about our last visit at winter break," Annette chattered excitedly, her familiar goofy grin creeping over her face. "We got to watch their council!"

"Yeah, yeah," Caleb muttered. "Now . . . let's go."

He seemed impatient, and still seemed to be avoiding talking directly to me, but I put the conflicts to the side and agreed. "Yeah."

Annette and Caleb stood in the threshold while Alyssa and I cleaned up the room as best we could after our stay (Oh, haha. I know what you're thinking.). When it looked relatively neat again, the four of us left the room, took the elevator to the lobby, dropped off the room cards, and exited the hotel.

"Zeus was _really _cool," Annette rambled on in my ear as she walked briskly beside me. "He was so . . . in control, you know? He had everything exactly where he wanted, when he wanted it, and how he wanted it. I guess you can do that when you're the king of Olympus, right? I bet he'd be a cool dad. Maybe a bit strict, but cool nevertheless. . ."

While she babbled on, I was watching Alyssa and Caleb walking in front of us down the streets of New York. Absentmindedly I plucked some lint from Alyssa's hair and grinned toothily when she turned to glare at me.

I was really nervous. Like, beyond nervous.

Olympus was the _palace of the gods. _Their home turf, their kingdom. And my dad was there.

I'd never really thought about meeting my dad. As a little kid, I'd constantly asked my mom about him, and she'd told me that he'd left after I'd been about a year old, and that I'd probably never see him. I'd been around eight then, and sort of given up about meeting my father. But now that I knew who I was, what I was, who my dad was, that childish wonder had reawakened.

I tried to get my hyperactive brain focused on the fact that my friends and I were going to Olympus to speak with my father (and the other gods, but I was really just thinking of my dad) about this false quest. Need I explain the false quest?

After the chat with Hades, I'd put it all together: Eris hadn't actually needed the apple to be searched for. She'd had it all along. So she'd sent me on some bogus quest to look for a symbol of power that wasn't missing. And I didn't think that was a fair thing- a god sending a couple of kids to look for something that wasn't there. So I'd decided that maybe I should report it to my Olympian family.

Usually I wasn't one for tattling, but . . .

Annette was still talking away in my ear. "And then, Zeus was like, 'No' and-"

Suddenly the ground literally shook. The sunlight dimmed and all the people around Caleb, Annette, Alyssa and I froze in place like statues. Everything was silent. Cars stopped in the middle of the street.

"What the Hades?" Caleb muttered.

Then the ground rumbled some more, and split open just yards away from where we stood. Alyssa peered over the gap and gasped- below there was lava, bubbling and hot, after a long fall into the earth.

"What's going on?" Annette whispered. I didn't bother shaking her hand away from my arm, which she'd clung to when the earth had shaken.

The building next to us lurched dangerously forward, casting a large shadow over the street as it loomed over us.

"Run!" I screamed, and we all sprinted out from under the path of the collapsing skyscraper. As it crashed to the ground behind us, the ground vibrated under my feet and sent me flying into the air and skidding back down on my side, clouds of dust billowing up from the building's remnants.

I opened my eyes, squinting. Dust was everywhere, like a thick fog. I stood, coughing and swatted at it with my hand. "Guys?" I called. "Alyssa?"

I stumbled forward. "Caleb? Annette?"

I could smell smoke, bitter up my nose. Rubble piled on the ground around where the building had fallen, and fire was crackling in a couple areas. Crushed cars, flipped over and completely totaled, littered the streets, along with bloody bodies and scattered objects- strollers, handbags, newspapers- things a person might carry while strolling down the street.

Stores, if they weren't crushed in, had broken windows, cracks spiderwebbing down their signs. Sirens roared in the distance, though I doubted they would save many people. A hollow feeling had entered my chest, impending dread thickening over my heart.

My sneaker hooked over something- a stone, maybe one of those motorized scooters. I couldn't tell in all the smoke and dust everywhere, stinging my eyes and biting teasingly at my nostrils. I tripped and braced my forearms to hit the concrete, but I didn't fall forward as expected.

Instead I fell backwards, like failing to ride a Manuel on my skateboard, and didn't hit the ground. I managed to open my eyes and see the sky getting farther and farther away. I twisted in midair, wind whistling in my ears, and saw the stream of lava approaching me fast.

I screamed and scrambled for a grip on the crude sides of the fissure, but my fingers couldn't find a grip and my feet couldn't find a foothold. I skidded down, down, down . . . and hit the lava.

It was red hot, like burning yourself on the stove only it was my whole body, and the pain was multiplied by a thousand. I wanted to scream, but feared I'd burn my insides as well as outsides if I opened my mouth. I flailed frantically, fearful instincts drowning out proper thought, and tried to get up to the surface. If there was one.

My breath was running out. My lungs felt like they were shriveling up from lack of oxygen. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think . . . and when the searing pain of the lava finally conquered my nerves, couldn't move.

_No. No. No . . . _

A cruel, echoing voice of a woman rang in my ears as I drifted downward, red bubbles trickling upwards from my fingers.

"This is how total chaos feels, boy. Do you like it?"

_"Dakota!" _

_"One room with you? I don't think so." _

_"Push the cart." _

A familiar voice echoed in my brain as my eyes closed and I gave up. My limbs flopped uselessly at my sides and I fell through the endless lava, the stinging pain not even hurting anymore through the numbing feeling that was spreading throughout my body.

Alyssa.

Was she safe? I wasn't sure. Was Caleb safe? Was Annette safe? If they were in trouble, I had to save them. No one else but me.

But my eyes refused to open. My limbs refused to move. The numbness covered my body and a faint buzzing filled my ears. _What a terrible way to die_, I thought._ Through something you don't understand . . . _

"Dakota!"

Alyssa's voice again. Man. I was really going to miss her if I were to die now.

"Dakota, wake up, please!" Annette now. Her voice was all choked up.

The lava faded to black around me. I continued to fall, though- slowly tumbling through the darkness.

"Dakota?"

Alyssa.

"Dakota. You're not dead. This whole thing is just an illusion, Eris, she's-"

A blinding white light twinkled below me. My body somehow whirled to face it, and I squinted into it as I picked up speed. I hurtled towards the light, free-falling like a skydiver . . .

I awakened. I was on the concrete, and three concerned faces leered over me. Caleb. Annette.

Alyssa.

Eris was near. The queen of chaos herself.

I shot up to my feet, adrenaline pumping. My eyes whirled frantically as I did a quick scan of the area. No fallen buildings, crackling fire, bodies lying on the street. No deep split in the earth where a stream of lava waited eagerly to burn your body.

People were walking again, giving me and my friends odd looks as we walked the opposite way of their current. My eyes were narrowed as they skimmed the faces of the crowd. Where was she? If she had caused that much fear, that much despair . . .

I froze in the crosswalk, my startled friends stopping directly behind me. The people crossing the street as the cars halted were all stalking towards us, chattering on cell phones and brushing against each other.

There.

Her long black hair curled in feathery tendrils behind her as she casually strolled towards me. I didn't dare look to her eyes, but I only had to see the smirk on her blood red lips to know her goal. She was just teasing us.

Eris.

"There she is," Caleb murmured. He looked to me. "Should we run?'

I knew exactly what he was wanting to do- run away from the doom that was closing in. I wondered if the mortals around us could feel that something was off as well. But I ignored the fear panging in my chest.

"No." I growled. "We fight."

I broke into a run, reaching for Ventus's key chain. People said random things like "Hey!" and "Watch it, kid!" as I pushed past them towards Eris, sword drawn. Right when I was about to swing at her, she vanished.

"Huh?" I stood in the middle of the crowd, mouth open in shock.

"Dakota, Dakota. You're going a bit crazy, aren't you?" Eris's voice echoed in my brain. "Come up to the top of your hotel. We have much to speak of."

My eyes immediately shifted to the hotel where Alyssa and I had stayed the previous night. I turned and ran back through the crowd, pushing past my friends like we were playing Red Rover.

"Hey, what-" I heard Caleb start as I shoved past him, but the only thing I could say was "Come on, this way!"

I burst back into the lobby and ran for the stairs, knowing the elevator would take too long. I ran up flight after flight of stairs, Ventus swinging from my hand. I crashed to the top and flung the door open.

There she was. Kneeling in her same tattered dress, facing away from me. Her glossy black hair flowed down to her mid-back, her skin white and delicate.

I wasn't sure if she knew I was there. But either way, she was going down. Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I restrained myself to a brisk creeping towards her, trying not to make a sound. I didn't bother looking back to see if my friends had arrived behind me; I'd run up the stairs faster than I'd ever run before.

I was barely a yard away from Eris when she suddenly spun around and thrust her hand at me. A wave of full force sent me flying backwards onto the concrete top of the building, landing hard and skidding backwards.

When I managed to sit up, spine aching, Eris was slowly, threateningly walking towards me. She was wearing that same smile- she had it all in control. She could wreak havoc on everything right now if she wanted.

"Dakota!" Alyssa, Caleb, and Annette were standing on top of the building now, watching Eris prowl towards me like a beautiful panther.

I didn't dare move. I sent all mental thoughts towards them hoping they'd get the vibe that if they moved, they'd be dead.

"You're a brave one, Dakota. Smart. All the qualities needed of the Third Child." Eris's voice was just as it'd been a few weeks before- though it felt like a year. Cold, calculating.

I braced my arms straight, propping myself up. She was still approaching me, taking dainty little steps like a child afraid to walk on stones with no shoes.

"But you also have a couple qualities that make you come a bit short of being the ideal hero." Her voice turned even icier, if that was possible. "You're conceited. A bit immature. You think too highly of yourself."

Now she was right in front of me, kneeling down so she was inches away from my face. Her stormy eyes bored into my forehead as I averted my gaze to the ground. "Be wary of your fatal flaw. I trust Hades told you?"

She was making me so mad. I felt the sudden urge to spit in her face, and I would've if my mouth hadn't been dry and my throat parched.

She straightened. "You look much like your father when you're angry." She turned away from me and began to walk off.

Ventus was still near me. In one fluid moment, I shot to my feet, breaking into a sprint towards her, scooping up my sword along the way. I let out an angry cry as I swung Ventus in a direct arc at her shoulder- a death blow for a demigod.

But she knew. And she was quick. As I attacked, Eris whirled, a silver staff appearing in her hand, and deflected my blow. It glanced off her weapon and almost flew from my hand.

Right then, when black met stormy blue, was when the battle began.

I jabbed Ventus upwards towards her ribs, but her staff was there. I backtracked and sliced at her shoulder, but her staff was there. I decided it had to be made of pure celestial bronze to deflect all my attacks. I was skinny, but I wasn't weak.

Caleb suddenly appeared behind her and raised his dagger. In no time, her hand shot out in some type of ninja chop and nailed him in the solar plexus. His breath left in a _whoosh _and he crumpled downward. But I didn't have time to check if he was OK.

Annette had no weapon, as far as I knew, but suddenly flowers were sprouting from the building's concrete. Leaves and vines curled around Eris's feet, but she just broke through them as our battle continued. All her plants were doing were distracting her, but they seemed to be making a slight dent in the goddess's skill.

Her staff came down in a blur at my head. I rose to parry, but had been caught off guard. Up until then Eris had been on the defensive from my string of attacks. Her sudden response startled me, and pain exploded in my skull. I fell back.

When I regained my composure, the tip of her staff was at my throat. I cringed and waited to meet Hades again (which I suspected would be real fun.) I'd never get to meet my dad . . .

"Ugh!" Suddenly Eris cried out, and I felt the presence of her staff leave. I opened my eyes to see her clutching her shoulder, where an arrow was lodged between her arm and chest.

Alyssa's expert shot had saved my life. Where she'd recovered a bow and arrow, I had no idea, but gods, was I grateful.

Eris stumbled backward, towards the dizzying edge of the building, and her feet slipped.

"Hey!" Annette's hand shot out, and a vine wrapped around Eris's foot as she staggered. Eris swayed dangerously for a second, before recovering her balance and glaring at the four of us.

"I'll remember this, Dakota Swift," she said, shaking her fist at me like the culprits on Scooby-Doo who say 'you medling kids!'. "Just wait until the true chaos erupts!"

She began to glow bright, the air buzzing, and we all turned away as she revealed her true godly form before she disappeared.

**How was that? For you, Maecenas, I combined 2 chapters. ;) So, until next time, REVIEW PLEASE! :D**


	21. My Stepmother Lectures Me

**Hey, sorry, it's been a while. :P **

**Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own PJO. It's that guy, over there. -points-**

Chapter Twenty-One: My Stepmother Lectures Me

I slowly got to my feet, my legs wobbly as the aftermath of battle settled into my body- the pounding of adrenaline fading to a faint thrum, the sweat I could now feel on my forehead. Trembling, I stood, gulping in grateful breaths of air. I surveyed my friends, my fingers unconsciously curling over Ventus.

Alyssa lowered her bow and met my eyes evenly. Even as she stared at me, I read the smug look that was beginning to crawl over her face: _You owe me, loser. _Sweat beaded on her hairline and she looked on edge, as I was, but she didn't seem to have obtained any injuries.

Annette was panting. She seemed to have withered along with her plants; she was bent over, hands on her knees, simply breathing. Her already-wild hair was tangled and sweaty. Her cheeks were a dark rosy pink.

And Caleb . . .

He was still sprawled on the ground, hands clutching his stomach as he cringed. His face was red and his eyes were squeezed shut in pain.

Alyssa's eyes followed mine, and widened. She hurried over to Caleb and knelt by him. "Caleb!" She bent over him and opened one turquoise eye with her pointer finger and thumb. Caleb swatted her hand away.

"Don't touch my face! Weirdo!"

Alyssa sighed as Annette and I looked on, exchanging odd looks. "I need to heal you," Alyssa told Caleb, straightening back up.

I almost scoffed before remembering that Alyssa was indeed a child of Apollo. She could be a healer.

"All right, stay still," Alyssa muttered as she gently, almost nervously, rested a hand on Caleb's stomach where Eris had ninja-chopped him.

Right when Alyssa closed her eyes and opened her mouth to mutter an incantation, I hissed, "Alyssa!" in the most urgent tone of voice I could muster.

Her eyes shot open and she looked at me as though a giant monster was behind me. "What?"

"Don't mess up." I winked at her. Annette giggled.

Alyssa rolled her eyes at me, but I'd seen her mouth quirk. I grinned in spite of myself as she mumbled something in Greek . . . something about pain washing away and relaxation and real peaceful stuff like that.

As Caleb's cringing face relaxed, I thought about Eris. She'd evidently not wanted us to go to Olympus . . . but we still had to. Or rather . . . _I _had to.

I watched as Alyssa finished healing Caleb, who braced himself on one knee and stood. It was then I realized everyone looked a bit worse for wear. All three of my companions looked completely exhausted and pale . . . it was at that moment that I wondered if I'd been the only one to have Eris play with my mind like it was Silly Putty.

As we were trudging towards the stairs to leave, Alyssa stopped, making me nearly run into her back.

"Whoa," I said, frowning. "Walk much?"

"Do you . . . do you feel that?" She turned around to face me, eyes glossy.

"Huh?"

"That . . . that . . ."

"Speak, Alyssa," I said slowly, motioning my hand at her.

Her mouth opened and closed like a fish's. I narrowed my eyes at her, as did Annette and Caleb. Caleb mouthed, _What's wrong? _at me, and I could only shrug in response.

Then she seemed to regain her composure. She blinked and frowned at the look I was giving her. "What?"

I shook my head, still confused. "Nothing, beautiful."

After she slapped my shoulder, we continued walking.

The four of us left the roof in painful, solemn silence. My legs ached with every step I took down the stairs- how had I run up to the roof and not noticed how many flights it was?

When we exited the hotel back to the busy street, I looked towards where I could see the Empire State Building in the darkening blue sky. I imagined Olympus up there- what did it look like? Some giant white castle? Maybe a looming skyscraper? I didn't know, but now I was determined to find out. We could still report to the gods, right?

"Dakota? Come on." Alyssa grabbed my wrist. "Wrong way, we're going back to camp."

"Nuh-uh," I objected, pulling my arm from her grasp.

Alyssa shot me a look. "Trying to get rid of me?" she smirked.

"Never," I said, turning the flirt on. "But, uh . . ." I turned towards the Empire State Building. "But I . . . I want to go to my father."

All three of my friends seemed impatient, but I supposed they'd gotten to meet their parents. Alyssa herself had seen Apollo on this very quest. Plus, they'd all been to Olympus before. I hadn't done either.

"We need to get back to camp," Alyssa insisted. "We need to-"

"Yeah, yeah, you guys do it," I said stubbornly. "I'm going to Olympus."

Alyssa looked taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"It's my quest," I shot at her. "I'm in charge."

"You can't go up there alone," Alyssa responded, folding her arms over her chest smugly, as though she'd hit some pressure point.

She hadn't. "Why not?" I retorted, crossing my arms as well.

Alyssa's glare faltered, but then she set her jaw and narrowed her eyes further, if that was possible. They were practically brown slits already. Annette and Caleb stood behind her nervously. I could practically feel the air crackling between Alyssa and me (sarcasm. Although, being the son of Zeus . . .).

I smirked. "You're worried about me," I said gleefully. "You'd miss me. Alyssa liiiiikes me." I drew out the word dramatically.

Her face darkened and her cheeks hinted with red. "No way, doofus. You can't out-stubborn everything."

"I can out-stubborn you," I replied smoothly.

I had her beat, and she knew it.

Alyssa's shoulders sagged and for a moment I almost dropped the whole thing and said, "Yeah, just kiddin', guys, let's go home. You should've seen your faces!" Because I honestly wanted to do that- return to camp and take a long, warm shower, then crash in bed for about a month.

But my father was up in Olympus. And that childish part of me that wished to meet him and make him proud was alive and dancing around anxiously in my chest.

"Fine," Alyssa sighed, looking crestfallen. Was it because I'd won the argument or because she actually would miss me? I almost smirked at the thought.

"But Dakota!"Annette protested. "What if you're hurt?"

"I won't be." I rolled up my battered sweatshirt's sleeves in the hot summer air, but they just fell back down again, so I dropped the subject. Then, digging in my pockets for taxi money, I looked up sheepishly.

"Anybody got a spare twenty?"

Fifteen minutes, a taxi smelling of cigarettes, and a worrisome goodbye later, I entered the lobby of the Empire State Building. Ignoring the disdainful sniffs I earned by the guard, I made my way towards the front desk.

My friends had wasted no time in telling me how to get to Olympus. The front desk guy would be suspicious, so I had to make him believe I was a demigod, and then he'd let me take the elevator to the six hundredth floor.

As I approached the guard at the front desk, my heart pounded excitedly, rattling around in my chest. Did my father know I was here? Had he sensed his own son's presence as soon as I'd walked into the lobby?

The guy at the front desk was reading some Olympian History magazine, with some dude in full Greek armor and raising a sword on the front. The kind of article we'd had to read in Ancient History in school during my sixth grade year. Being dyslexic, I wasn't one for reading, and I could only imagine what terrors I'd have in seventh grade when summer ended.

The guard looked at me over the top of his magazine. "Yes?" he asked, looking annoyed.

"Sixth-hundredth floor," I said.

He rolled his eyes and pushed up his little reading glasses farther on his nose. "There is no sixth-hundredth floor." He went back to reading.

This was the suspicious part, apparently.

"Zeus is my dad," I continued.

I thought I saw something in his dull brown eyes flicker, but I couldn't be sure. His expression remained bored.

"I would like to speak with my father," I said, leaning closer to his face. "I don't think he'd be happy if he found out his son wasn't allowed to visit him."

That got him rolling. He sat back, eyes anxious, and tossed his magazine onto his cluttered desk. He slid open a drawer and handed me a key card, eyeing the other people warily.

"Put this in the security slot. Make sure no one else is with you in the elevator."

"Thanks." I smiled innocently at him.

I pressed the Up button on the elevator and waited, shifting from foot to foot, for the doors to open. When they did, I almost ran right into a man and a woman, both wearing tailored suits. "Watch it, kid," the man said as he brushed past me.

Once inside the elevator, after the doors had closed, I flipped the switch and slid the card into the slot. It vanished, and in its place was a button with 600 printed on it in kingly numbers.

I grinned. _Here I come, Father. _

I pressed the button.

I heard something click within the walls of the elevator. A pleasant female voice played over the speakers: _Hold on, visitor. _Confused, I gripped the bars on the elevator walls.

Then the elevator shot upward like a bullet. It was like a roller coaster going straight down at full speed . . . except I was going up. My hands clenched on the bars tightly.

The elevator came to a smooth stop, and a soft _ding!_ sounded as the doors slid open. Carefully, I stepped out of the elevator and my jaw dropped to my knees.

Before me, led to by the narrow cobblestone path that I was standing on, was the summit of a mountain. On the snowy peaks towards the top of that mountain stood ancient temples and buildings, bronze braziers much larger than the one at camp flickering with multicolored flames that drew your eyes to their warmth.

The one road I was standing on (in the middle of the air, might I add) broke off into a scatter of other paths that led to glistening palaces and wondrous courtyards with beautiful fountains running crystal-clear water. But somewhere along the way, they all sewed back together to create one large marble staircase to the largest palace.

It was then I realized that the Zeus cabin at camp was exactly a replica of this palace- white marble gleaming in the sunlight, simple but elegantly powerful.

Grinning, I started up the pathway.

My sneakers scuffed lightly against the cobblestone as I strolled along through Mount Olympus. The city of Manhattan was a view from the stratosphere, way, way below me.

I tried to take in all the details of everything I saw, but I couldn't accept it. Each time I slowed to see a single thing, I found myself accelerating to see the next. A colorful marketplace where a few wood nymphs tugged at my sweatshirt sleeves trying to get me to buy something, a clear, unpolluted forest, where a crystalline lake glittered in the sunlight, a giant coliseum, like the Roman one, only completely untarnished and new. My mind couldn't accept the fact that all of this was here. And my dad was here.

When I reached the white marble steps, my excitement mounted. I climbed them quickly and found myself in a huge courtyard with busts of each god and goddess's face by each marble pillar, and exquisitely painted portraits on each wall. The one directly above the doorway ahead of me was obviously of my father . . . and his queen, Hera.

I approached the doorway in awe, stopping to stare at the portrait. Here my father looked older and wiser than he had in my dream. He had a dark beard, grayish-black, and dark hair spilling to his shoulders. His electric blue eyes seemed to flash whichever way I looked at the painting. He wore a simple white robe, and his wife was in his arms smiling. She herself was beautiful, and her golden-bronze hair seemed to flutter behind her as her multicolored eyes glittered at the artist.

"You've come to see your father?"

I whirled, startled, to see a woman entering the courtyard. I didn't have to look twice to see who it was.

"Queen Hera," I said, immediately kneeling and ducking my head. I pictured how I looked to her: Some lone demigod, wearing tattered jeans and a red sweatshirt, tangled blonde hair and a pale, dirt-streaked face.

"Well, he's not here," she drawled. I dared to take a quick look up at her. She was now passing the fountain in the center of the courtyard. She wore a white dress trimmed with gold that matched the robe Zeus wore in the portrait behind me. Her eyes surveyed me disdainfully and she shook her hair back, letting it tumble to her mid-back.

Once I felt her gaze on me, I immediately looked back down, feeling ashamed and shocked.

My father wasn't here?

_Where was he? _Panic began to thrum in my chest. Had I really come all this way, and my father wasn't even here?

"He had an, er, important subject to tend to," Hera continued. She had a melodic, soothing voice, but something sounded a bit off in her tone.

I was crestfallen. If Zeus isn't here, then I might as well leave, I thought bitterly. I didn't dare move, though, as the Queen of Heaven approached me so that her godly feet were the only thing I could see of her. I focused on the woven parts of her sandals.

"Do you know how Lord Zeus makes me feel?" she asked. "I love him dearly, but he is . . . er . . . what do the children say? Do they say 'a flirt'?"

I nodded. I'd been called a flirt more than a few times. And not just by Alyssa.

"He is a flirt, then. Always running off with women. Mortal women, for that matter," she spat, eyeing me.

I almost gasped right there.

She automatically hated me for something my father had done. From her point of view, he'd made a mistake in meeting my mother. He'd made a mistake in being the best thing she'd had in her life.

He'd made a mistake in having me.

Was that really what I was?

A lump appeared in my throat. I swallowed it with difficulty, but I could feel tears welling up in the corners of my eyes.

Hera lowered herself so her face was inches from mine. "You are the spawn of him and that mortal, Kestrel Swift," she said. Her voice was almost a whisper, but it still sounded hateful. I flinched as she said, "You are just one of his screw-ups. He is constantly meeting these women and I never know until I see children like _you._" She sneered.

"Being his child, his son, I suppose you will have the same fate as him with women. Being an egotistical womanizer." She then stood and held her head high.

"But when he is my husband, _my husband, _he is the best. He treats me well and gets me lovely gifts and such." She let a smile dance across her lips. "And I love my husband."

Then she kept walking right past me, towards the doorway behind me. I heard her pause at the portrait, then continue walking.

A tear escaped my eye and began to trail down my cheek. So as I headed back down Olympus feeling immensely hurt, I used my sweatshirt sleeve to wipe my face.

Instead of meeting my father, I'd gotten a slap to my face about how I was a mistake. How my mother was some stupid mortal who'd somehow gotten herself into a situation where she'd fallen in love with my dad. And he'd loved her back, at some point.

How I was just a wretched child of the Lord of the Sky. How I wasn't even supposed to be here.

But of course, I tried to put that out of my mind.

**OK, guys, I think the next chapter is the last. :/ But then we've got the sequel to think about, so . . . yeah. : ) Until next time . . . **


	22. I Make My Choice

**Hey, guys! Last chapter of the Swift Storm here! Hope you all enjoy it. ;) **

**Disclaimer: -looks up boredly from Percy Jackson book- That's not my name on the cover. **

Chapter Twenty-Two: I Make My Choice

"You sure this is the right place, kid?" The taxi driver looked at me questioningly, his dull brown eyes blinking slowly as he gnawed on his toothpick.

"Yeah, this is it," I replied, reaching to open the taxi's door.

"Are you absolutely sure?" he repeated. "This is a strawberry field."

_This is my summer camp, where I learn how to kill monsters and play dangerous games and stuff. _"I'm sure," I said, nodding and passing a ten-dollar bill to him. "Thanks."

I left the taxi and stepped out into the strawberry fields, disappearing over the hill. The taxi was gone the next time I looked back.

I started down the hill and almost immediately was greeted by Annette shouting, "Dakota!"

Even though she was annoying, I couldn't help but grin. I was back at my home-away-from-home.

Life began to recede into normality again. I mean, yay, we all returned from our quest with multiple scratches and bruises after nearly getting killed many times. Joy.

I knew, despite the awkward stares we'd share occasionally, Caleb, Annette, and Alyssa were close friends of mine now. Even if one of them wanted to go out with me. Whatever.

After the hype of us returning was over (which was a bit sad for me because the Aphrodite girls stopped coming to my cabin asking to see the scrapes and cuts), camp life returned to normal. We were back in the routine. The royal treatment wore off, and then we were just "those kids who went on that quest and made it back".

It took me a while to realize July was winding down. Before long, so was August, and I had to decide whether or not to stay year-round and train or go home to my mom. And the more I thought about it, the better option staying at camp became. I kept putting that thought out of my mind, but it still nestled in the back of my brain until the deadline- the last day of camp- hit me. And I still hadn't decided what to do.

Heart pounding nervously, I exited the Zeus cabin with my mind racing. We were having a big feast to celebrate a successful summer of no casualties to any monsters. I received my first Camp Half-Blood necklace- a black string with one white bead attached. The tiny bead had a single golden apple with a question mark in the middle to represent my false quest. I almost smiled at its stupidity. I still tied the string around my neck like the other campers.

After a lovely dinner, as I was heading back to my cabin to think about the home or camp debate, Alyssa grabbed my wrist and pulled me aside so hard I almost fell over.

"Whoa, jeez," I grumbled. "What-"

"Before the sing-a-long, meet me by Thalia's tree," she whispered.

"Why?" I narrowed my eyes, confused.

"Just do it," Alyssa hissed. Her brown eyes were urgent, and she looked nervous and apprehensive. As she hurried off, I wondered what was wrong.

Later that day, like Alyssa had instructed me to, I trudged up the hill towards Thalia's tree. It was clearly silhouetted against a stereoptypical sunset. It looked like some beautiful painting, or one of those green screen backgrounds, like in movies.

As I hiked towards the pine, I cast a glance over my shoulder. Other campers were beginning to gather to prepare for the campfire. I spotted Sierra in the midst, and thought of the odd dream of her, Charlie, and the other girls. I hadn't seen Redhead and Blondie at camp, so where were they?

Then I wondered about the prophecy. Along with the camp or home debate, I'd been thinking about it. We'd "recovered" the apple- Eris had it the whole time, which had saved Olympus from a whole bunch of conflict. Alyssa had been replaced by Annette, completing the "one replaced" line. Alyssa had risen when she'd shot the goddess of chaos with an arrow, and the plants had grown when Annette had helped as well.

The part that troubled me was that only two goodbyes had been said: When Alyssa was taken, and when I'd left for Olympus. When was the last goodbye? When was this prophecy over?

This thought shook me up as I made it to the top of the hill. Alyssa was leaning against Thalia's tree, a faint breeze fluttering her wavy red hair.

"Hey, Alyssa, what's-"

That's when I spotted her backpack. And a quiver, and one of the camp's rental bows, dropped by her feet. She was wearing torn black jeans, a pair of dark orange Keds, and a baggy gray sweatshirt with some academy name printed across the front.

"Where are you going?" Frowning, I advanced towards her faster, jogging the rest of the way up the hill until I was in front of her.

Alyssa turned towards me, mouth opening and closing like she wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out.

"Alyssa?" I prompted. She looked really nervous. What was going on?

"I'm . . . I'm going on a quest," she choked out. Her eyes were wide, deer-in-headlights as she bit her lip.

"Wh-what?" I spluttered, in utter shock. "Why?"

"For you," she added. "I heard about . . . you know, your prophecy. The three children of the Big Three?"

"I'm pretty important." I couldn't help pointing out. "How'd you find out?"

"Never mind that," she said, cutting me off. For a moment the fear in her eyes was replaced with playful anger. She slugged my arm. "You're supposed to have powers, stupid. Dangerous powers."

"Yup." I grinned. "I'm a dangerous subject."

She rolled her eyes, the fearful look returning. "Dakota, get serious."

I let my grin fade, let the seriousness return. "OK."

Alyssa stared off past the hill, leaning against the trunk of Thalia's tree. Her gaze was frightened but determined. Why was she eager to leave camp again, after barely being back for a month? I figured I could find out my own "powers", or whatever. She didn't have to leave camp . . . did she?

Silence settled between us. Not awkward silence, just . . . silence. My brain was still in hyperdrive, though- Why would she just venture out on some random quest for my "powers"?

"Can I tell you something?"

Alyssa's voice broke through the silence, startling me. Her voice was small, which sounded weird because she was probably the strongest girl I knew.

"Shoot," I said.

"When we were leaving from where we'd fought Eris, on our quest," she began, "I could feel. . . a presence. An ancient, evil presence."

I leaned on the opposite side of the tree beside her, remembering when she'd suddenly stopped in front of me in some sort of trance. "OK . . . and did you, by any chance, recognize this strange, dark presence?" I drew out the words dramatically.

"No."

"So . . . you're going to figure out what it is," I remarked. "What does that have to do with-"

"It has _something _to do with you." Now Alyssa turned on me, eyes blazing. "I just know it." She seemed so sure, and her eyes were as bright as Apollo's had been in that Ferrari the previous month.

"OK . . . jeez." I propped myself on the tree and averted my eyes from her laser gaze.

"You'll . . . you'll cover for me, right?" she asked tentatively.

"You haven't told Chiron?" I sent her a lazy, questioning glance.

"Well . . ."

I stood straight and grinned at her. "Devious, Alyssa. I like it."

She gave me a small smile. "Yeah . . ." She slung her backpack over her shoulder, her quiver of arrows sticking out of the top. Her bow was strapped to her side.

It was at that moment that I realized she was seriously leaving. All alone. A single demigod out in the world. She'd be in constant danger. And I was scared for her.

I didn't look at her as she finished "suiting up", instead focusing on the stereotypical sunset behind her. In the valley, I could hear the campers begin the sing-a-long. Sierra's proud, soulful voice rang out above the rest of the singers.

"Dakota?"

I gave Alyssa a sidelong glance. She held out her arms hesitantly.

She wanted a hug.

"Desperate much?" I smirked. She smirked right back, then threw her arms around me and . . . well, we hugged.

When she let me go, she bit her lip nervously as if she wanted to say something else, but then she turned and sprinted down the hill. I watched her go until I couldn't see her figure racing into the distance anymore. "Bye!" I blurted. The wind carried her farewell back to me, and I smiled, because suddenly I knew.

The last goodbye. My quest's prophecy was complete.

The sky had darkened slightly as I approached the camp fire. Almost immediately, Chiron appeared in front of me with narrowed brown eyes and a parental glare.

"Where did you and Alyssa go? You know very well, Dakota, that campers are not allowed to be alone at any time, for more reasons than just monsters." His voice was stern and demanding as he stared me down.

Laughter bubbled up in my chest, but I restrained it and gave him an innocent look, remembering Alyssa's frightened query: _"You'll . . . you'll cover for me, right?" _

"We went to the archery fields so she could show me how to notch three arrows at once, relax." I held my palms up in a "chill out" gesture. "I don't know where she went after that." That was true.

Seeing Chiron wasn't intrigued, I added, "We didn't make out or anything, if that's what you're worried about." Then I lifted my eyes to his and crossed my arms. One of his eyebrows lifted.

We stood like that, centaur and half-blood staring each other down, for about a minute before a smirk crawled over Chiron's face.

"Then come along to the campfire," he said, smiling. "And enjoy the rest of your summer."

I knew he hadn't completely bought it, but I left and joined the other campers, and started to sing whatever lame song they were singing.

The rest of that day went by smoothly, and when I was alone in the Zeus cabin that night, I decided that I was going to surprise my mother and return home. I knew she'd be worried, because she worried about everything.

But it'd be good to be home again. And it might even be good to return to school as a substitute for normal life before this whole demigod thing. Not to mention flirting with girls that I didn't know very well again.

That night as I closed my eyes, I began to think about every other thing that was worrying me:

The two girls from my dreams: where were they? In the last dream I'd seen them in, they'd been here at camp. Now where had they gone?

Alyssa: Alone on her quest. A quest for me. Would she find anything? Would I ever see her again? I remembered her hug, and prayed to the gods that she'd survive.

And then I worried about my father. Not so much about him, but what he thought of me. Did he automatically think I was a mistake, just like Hera had said? Had he completely forgotten about my mom, and how he'd made her happy with a child?

I hoped not.

The next morning, my bags were packed, and the Zeus cabin was clean, or as clean as I could manage to get it. After a good breakfast, I found Argus readying his van to take into the city, and a couple other kids crowding around, ready to go home.

I grinned and joined them, so I could return to my mom's cozy apartment and enjoy the small remainder of my summer.

**Sorry if the ending sucked, it took me a while to figure out a good way to end the story. :P Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing and such, and the sequel should be up sometime within the month. :D Until next time . . . Mending the Sky out! **


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